Energy consumption and mathematical modeling of microwave drying of date / [electronic resource].

Includes references.

In the present research, drying characteristics and energy requirements for microwave drying ofdate palm were reportedfor two varieties ofdate palm, (Hayani and Zagloul). During the experiments, drying was carried out until the jinal moisture content reached a level ofless than 20% (db). The experimental data were jitted to six drying models. The models were compared using reduced chi-square (Xl). mean bias error (MBE) and root mean square error (RMSE). They were llsed to determine the quality ofthe fit. Page, Modified Page (l) and Linear were the best descriptive models. The effective moisture diffusivity was determined by using Fick's second law and was observed to lie between 8.6xIO-9 and 5.98xIO-8 m2/s for the date palm samples. The minimum total energy consumption (0.08kWh), the minimum specifiC energy (5.7 MJ/kgH20) and maximum drying efficiency (40%) were computed for drying (Hayani). The may;imum total energy consumption (0.14kWh), the minimum drying efficiency (32%) and maximum specific energy (7.15 MJ/kgH20) were computedfor (Zagloul).

Summary in Arabic.