Estudio experimental de modelos cinéticos de secado para cuantificar propiedades físicas de la remolacha (Beta vulgaris).

Abstract

Dehydration is the most used technique in food preservation, for the use of industrial organic waste of beet (Beta vulgaris), since it is a vegetable grown in several areas of the country, she represents a commercial interest that depends on the quality and stability of the product. In the present work, validated mathematical models are studied in the kinetics of food drying to determine the adjustment of the best established behavior, by the statistical coefficients and parameters of temperature, air flow and thickness of the sample. This study was applied to the case of beet slices (Beta vulgaris) using linear regression, adjustment of least squares to describe the proportion of humidity with respect to drying time. Three models of thin-film drying were evaluated, including the Newton, Page, Henderson and Pabis models. They were adjusted to the experimental data using non linear regression. It was determined that the best fit of the model was that of Henderson and Pabis with cut thickness of 7 (mm) temperature of 40 (° C) and air flow of 595 (m3 / h) since it leaded to provide the best correlation between the data experiments for the drying of beet slices (Beta vulgaris). In addition, the color loss during the drying process was evaluated for the nine tests and the color index corresponding to the test 3 was determined, which showed a lower degree ofTenzymatic browning, demonstrating a very obvious difference in the color change during the whole drying process. It was also verified that the significant solid reduction of 0.16% and humidity reduction of 0.84% for the test 5 with a thermal efficiency of 1.22%.