Estimating the Drying Kinetics and Effective Moisture Diffusivity of Fresh Water Prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii)

Abstract

Fresh-water prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) once harvested, tends to deteriorate rapidly because of the high systemic moisture it constituent which has lead to post-harvest losses, drying as a method of preservation widely used for high moisture bio-products reduces moisture probably to bone-dry level and thereby increased the shelf-life of the fresh-water prawn. Therefore, Estimating the Drying Kinetics and Effective Moisture Diffusivity of Fresh Water Prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) was investigated using a laboratory convective oven dryer and was arranged in a thin layer. 50-100°C temperatures were applied, varying on multiple of 10°C. It was observed that the drying rate increased with increasing drying temperatures. Drying data obtained were fitted into four empirical thin-layer drying models, and the best model was investigated after undergoing statistical parameters (of coefficient of determination, R2; root mean square error, RMSE and reduced chi-square, χ2). The ANN and Henderson model was found to perform satisfactorily in describing the drying behaviour of the Fresh-water prawn samples at the chosen temperature levels. The initial moisture content of all the samples was 54% wb. The final effective moisture diffusivity of the samples during the drying experiments ranges from 1.26 x 10-7m2/s - 7.06 x 10-7m2/s, and the temperature related activation energy of diffusion was found to be 12.82-kJ/mol. Drying occurred mainly in the falling rate period, and the characterizing drying curves were exponential with increase in drying temperatures.