Mathematical Modeling of Dried Banana Slices with MCHP Dryer
In this research work, the waste heat of exhaust gas of an engine-generator for the process of banana slices drying was used and tested. Drying experiments were conducted at different engine loads (25%, 50%, 75% and full load) and thickness of the samples (3, 5 and 7 mm). At load 25%, 50%, 75% and full load the temperatures produced in drying chamber was 50, 60, 70 and 80 ℃ respectively. The experiments were done at air velocity 0.5 m/s. Three drying models were fitted to the experimental data of moisture ratio in order to assess a suitable form of the drying curve for banana drying. For banana with 3 (mm) thickness page model offering maximum average value of EF and minimum average value of RMSE and χ2 namely 0.99745, 0.01473875 and 0.000208443 and for banana slice with thickness of 5 and 7 (mm) Logarithmic model offering maximum average value of EF and minimum average value of RMSE and χ2 namely 0.9966, 0.01472 and 0.00022 respectively.
