Estimation of Equilibrium Moisture Content and Drying Time of Potato Through Hot Air Drying

The micro-organisms and bacteria lead the decomposition/decay of moist potato. These failures are almost negligible when the moisture content of potato is reduced below 10 %. Convective drying effectively prevents those defects/failures in the food stuffs. An experimental facility is developed for convective drying of moist object. Time dependent mass of the rectangular potato is measured during drying and using this data the transient moisture content is estimated. Initial moisture content is estimated by a thermostatically controlled hot air oven. The drying air velocity is maintained 2, 4 and 6 m/s and it was experimented at different air temperatures of 40, 50, 60 and 70 degrees C. The equilibrium moisture content and equilibrium drying time (Fourier number) are found and tabulated. A correlation is developed for equilibrium moisture content and Fourier number based on the drying air velocity and temperature. Density of potato is estimated from the experimental data and a good agreement is noticed when compared with the data from literature.