2025, Sustainable Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering, pp. 139-153
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Analytical solution of convective drying of thin apple slices with microwave pre-treatment
(The title is not available in English)
aAgricultural University of Athens, Department of Natural Resources Management, and Agricultural Engineering, Athens, Greece bUniverzitet u Beogradu, Poljoprivredni fakultet, Srbija
email: xanthopoulos@aua.gr
Abstract
(not available in English)
The aim of this study was to experimentally investigate the drying characteristics of Idared apple thin discs (slices) during convective drying with microwave (MW) pre-treatment and to develop analytical modeling for thin-layer convective drying of apple slices. The drying experiments were carried out in laboratory-scale hot-air dryer using apple discs of 2 mm thickness at a drying temperature of 50 oC. The air velocity during all experiments was maintained at 2 m/s. MW pre-treatments were applied in a microwave oven operating at 700 W, with exposure times of 1 min, and 3 min. For each experiment, the drying time and equilibrium moisture content were determined. Analysis of drying curves showed that MW pre-treatment significantly reduced the overall drying time.
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