Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Agricultural Engineering Research Institute, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
2
Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tanta University, Gharbia, Egypt.
3
Faculty of Technology of Industry and Energy, Samannoud Technological University, Gharbia, Egypt.
Abstract
An experimental trial was held to examine the drying kinetics of tomato leather, specific energy consumption, energy cost, and quality parameters. This study investigates the effect of various variables on Tomato leather drying using infrared and hot air. The experiments were held using tomato leather thicknesses 0.8 cm and 0.6 cm, three air velocities (0.5, 1, and 1.5 m/s), drying temperature (50, 55 and 60 °C), and infrared radiation (800 and 1000 W/m2). During the experiment, specific energy consumption, energy cost, and tomato leather quality were measured. Experimental data show that the Lewis model is the most suitable drying model with lower RMSE, MBE, and χ2 and the highest R2 value to describe tomato leather drying kinetics compared to the Henderson and Logarithmic models. IR and convective hot air drying methods maintain a higher drying rate and short drying duration for 0.6 cm tomato leather thickness when using 1.5 m/s air velocity, 60 °C drying temperature, and 1000 W/m2 radiation intensity. The lowest values of energy consumption, SC, and energy cost were (3.75 kWh,11.36 kWh/kg, and 0.882 $/kg) respectively and the highest values of MER and SMER were (0.07 kgw/h and 0.09 kgw/kW.h), respectively were achieved at 0.6 cm tomato leather thickness 1.5 m/s air velocity, 60 °C drying air temperature, and 1000 W/m2 radiation intensity.
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