Modeling of Thin Layer Drying of Banana (Nendran Spp) under Microwave, Convective and Combined Microwave-Convective Processes

Drying kinetics of microwave, convective and microwave assisted convective drying of thin layer Nendran banana was investigated on a modified microwave oven. The drying characteristics through the operating parameters of the drying process, such as power output, air temperature, slice thickness and sample mass in terms of drying rate equation, were analyzed. An appropriate empirical model to represent the drying process was established by analyzing the available literature models with current experimental data. The statistical analysis for the selected model was performed, parameters like Mean Bias Error, Root Mean Square Error, reduced chi square and t-stat were estimated to examine the consistency of the model to represent the present experimental results. Higher rates and shorter drying times were achieved at a higher temperature and microwave heating power and lesser sample thickness and load. Microwave drying resulted in a substantial decrease in the drying time with better quality product when dried at higher power (300 W) level compared to other processes.