Study of the Drying Kinetics of Lemon Grass

Problem statement: The thin- layer drying experiments were conducted to examine the effect of drying air temperature and humidity on the drying kinetics. Approach: A model to estimate the drying behavior of Lemon grass was developed). Results: Four different thin-layer drying models were compared with respect to their coefficient of determination (R2), Mean Bias Error (MBE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The one with highest (R2) and lowest (MBE) and (RMSE) was selected to better estimate the drying curves. Three temperatures (35, 45 and 55°C) and three humidities (30, 40 and 50%) were investigated with a fixed air velocity of 1 m sec-1. Conclusion/Recommendation: The increase in the drying air temperature increased the drying process and decreased the Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC) of Lemon grass. The drying process decreased as the air humidity increases. The effect was less than that of the temperature. The EMC have high values with high relative humidity.

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