Drying Mango (Mangifera indica L.) with Solar Energy as a Pretreatment for Bioethanol Production

The drying kinetics of mango were examined as a first step of pretreatment for biofuels production. This method exploits the potential of the carbohydrate present in the raw material, where the concentration for fermentation was adjusted to 20 g/L of reducing sugars. Dehydration was carried out by natural convection using a solar dryer. The solar dryer employed was made of transparent acrylic, and it had an internal volume of 0.125 m(3). The dehydration was performed through natural convection. The dehydration achieved 95.6% moisture removal in 28 h and reached maximum temperatures of 52 degrees C and 56 degrees C, corresponding to first and second phases, respectively. The minimum temperature reached was 21 degrees C . The rate of drying was evaluated during the first stage, between 0 to 4 hours, with radiation maxima of 991 and 1014 W/m(2) for that day. At the peak of radiation the drying rate was 0.060 g H2O/g dry mass/min.