Browsing by Author "Obumseli, Pacifine Chioma"

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    Modelling of thin layer drying characteristics of groundnut seeds (Arachis Hypogea)
    (Federal University of Technology, Owerri, 2017-10) Obumseli, Pacifine Chioma
    Groundnut or Peanut is a legume crop with high nutritive value. Drying of groundnut is necessary in order to reduce the moisture content to a safe storage level and also increase the shelf life. Five thin layer drying models were fitted into the drying curve also the effective moisture diffusivity for groundnut seeds were calculated. Groundnut seeds with an Initial Moisture Content 67% (db) were dried to a safe moisture content of about 14% in a conventional tray dryer at temperatures of 45oC, 55oC, 65ºC, and air velocities of 0.6m/s, 1.0m/s and 1.5m/s .The effective moisture diffusivity was evaluated using Fick’s second law and the dependence of moisture diffusivity on temperature was described by Arrhenius type equation. Comparisons of the drying rate models showed high coefficient of determination for Page model, two-term model, followed by Logarithmic, Henderson and Pabis model, and then the Newton Model of which has high error and low coefficient of determination. The Model equation is MR = exp(-0.00119t) 1.43