Mathematical Modelling of Thin Layer Drying Behaviour of Parboiled Breadfruit (Treculia africana) Seeds

This paper presents a research done on the thin layer drying behaviour of parboiled breadfruit (treculia africana var. inversa) seeds at 30% Moisture Content (w.b.) and varying air temperatures of 55, 65, and 75oC, at air velocities of 0.6, 1.0 and 1.5 m/s. In order to select a suitable form of the drying curve, 5 different thin layer semi theoretical drying models were fitted to experimental data. The moisture diffusivity was calculated from Fick’s second law as the major equation. The highest value of coefficient of determination (R2), the low values of sum of square error(SSE) and root mean square error (RMSE) indicates that the Two-term model can satisfactorily describe the drying curve of parboiled breadfruit seeds for drying air velocity of 1.5 m/s and temperature of 55ºC . According to the results, the calculated value of effective moisture diffusivity varied from 3.35 to 9.21×10-11m2/s and the value of activation energy varied from 27.74 to 29.10 kJ/mol.