Author : Fouakeu-nanfack Gildas Armel, Gnepie Takam Nicolas Wilfred, Matuam Balbine, Edoun Marcel, Zeghmati Belkacem

The thermo-physical properties of papaya (Carica papaya L.) were determined experimentally using a licking flow drying air stream operating in forced convection. The drying experiments were carried out at 40, 50 and 60°C with a constant rate air flow of 0.0848 kg/s and an initial mass of 800±0.01g. Seven semi-empirical models were used to approximate the experimental drying kinetics. The diffusion coefficient was estimated from simplified solutions of Fick’s second law. The Arrhenius model was used to estimate the activation energy. The analysis of the curves shows the influence of the temperature on the drying curves. Two term is the model that can best describe the drying kinetics of papaya in a licking flow dryer with R2, RMSE, and SSE varying respectively from 0.9722 to 0.9999; 4.187 x 10-3 – 5.039 x 10-2 and 1.448 x 10-4 – 2.694 x 10-2 for a temperature ranging from 40 to 60°C. The values of the mass diffusivity coefficient vary between 1.5645 x 10-10 and 2.2729 x 10-10 m2/s. The activation energy Ea is equal to 16.262 kJ/mol for an Arrhenius factor D0 equal to 8.171 m2/s.

Keywords: Experimental characterization, Drying kinetics, Activation energy, Convective drying