MODELING OF THE DRYING PROCESS THE SEEDS OF COWPEA

The study aimed to model the drying curves of cowpea beans (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) in different temperatures determine the coefficient of effective diffusion and the activation energy. For this, we used seeds of beans-cowpea cultivar BRS Guariba, harvested manually, with a water content of 21% (wet basis), dried until the water content 11% (wet basis). Drying was performed in the experimental dryer under controlled temperatures of 30, 40 and 50 degrees C +/- 1 degrees C, and relative humidity of the air drying between 14 and 59%. 12 models of non-linear regression were tested and for selection the best model was considered to: the significance of the regression coefficient t test, the magnitude of the adjusted coefficient of determination (R-2), the average relative error (P) and the estimated average error (SE). It was observed that the drying time for of the beans-cowpea seeds was 10,4; 5,6; and 2,1 h to the temperatures of 30, 40 and 50 degrees C, respectively; among the number tested, the mathematical model the Midilli was the best fit to experimental data. The coefficient of diffusion increases with temperature, with values between 5,047 x 10(-11) to 12,011 x 10(-11) m(2) s(-1) for the temperature range from 30 to 50 degrees C. The relationship between the coefficient of diffusion effective and the drying temperature can be described by Arrhenius equation, which presents activation energy of 35,04 kJ mol(-1) for spreading the liquid in the drying process of the of beans-cowpea seeds.