Kinetics, Mechanism, and Thermodynamics Studies of Vacuum Drying of Biomass from Taxus chinensis Cell Cultures

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the kinetics, mechanism, and thermodynamics of vacuum drying and dehydration of plant cells of Taxus chinensis. The efficiency of vacuum drying increased with increases in the drying temperature (45–60°C). When the experimental data were fitted to typical kinetic models for drying, the Modified Page were the most appropriate. Thermodynamic parameters revealed the endothermic, irreversible, and spontaneous nature of the drying. The effective diffusion coefficient (3.6602 × 10−14−10.9810 × 10−14 m2/s) and mass transfer coefficient (2.2536 × 10−11−10.8110 × 10−11 m/s) increased with increasing drying temperature. The small Biot number (2.6167 × 10−2−4.1841 × 10−2) indicated that the process of mass transfer was externally controlled.