Abstract

*Harsha Hirdyani and Payel Adhikari

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Peapod is an underutilized product and most of the time it is wasted as leftover part or used as animal feed. The present study targets drying kinetics of peapods for its application as a profitable adjunct to the food processing industry. Objectives: To study drying kinetics of peapods using a tray drier. Materials and methods: Experimental study was performed to determine the drying characteristics of pea pods in a laboratory scale tray dryer at a constant air velocity of 0.5m/s, at two different temperatures that is 60°C and 70°C. Semi-theoretical and/or empirical models were fitted to the experimental data and comparisons were made for their coefficients of determination (R2) as predicted by non-linear regression analysis and root mean square error (RMSE). Results: The Page model described the drying curve with a correlation coefficient, r = 0.9805. Further the results depicted that moisture ratio decreased gradually with drying time as high temperature increase the transfer of heat and mass from sample powders to air. Conclusion: The high values of coefficient of determination and low values of RMSE indicated that the Page’s Model satisfactorily fitted drying kinetics of peapod. The Page’s Model was found to aptly describe the drying behavior of peapod.