PILE SALTING KINETICS OF GOAT SHEETS USING ZUGARRAMURDI AND LUPIN'S MODEL

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of this work was to consider the application of the Zugarramurdi and Lupin's model in the pile salting of goat sheets in order to study the equilibrium, as well as the kinetics of the process. Six groups, with 36 sheets in each of them, were salting using different mixtures of NaCl, KCl, CaCl2 and MgCl2. The initial and final weight, moisture and salt contents were measured for 6 days in each sheet at 1-day interval. Nonlinear regression was used to fit the database to Zugarramurdi and Lupin's model. The models as fitted explained the 92.1–95.2% of the moisture concentration variation kinetics, and the 93.7–96.5% of the salt concentration variation kinetics at 95% confidence level. Equilibrium moisture and salt contents ranged between 0.891 and 1.281 g water/g dry basis (d.b.) no salt and 0.430–0.523 g salt/g d.b. no salt, respectively. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS To obtain a better understanding of the industrial process applications, it is important to model and quantify the kinetics and process yield. This work is intended to provide a model that allows describing the moisture and salt contents during the pile salting of goat sheets using different salting mixtures.