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Natural convection drying of mango slices: An experimental study
Obispo, Siguerd
Obispo, Siguerd
Promotor / Advisor
Keyword
solar energy
drying
kinetics
moisture
evaporation
drying
kinetics
moisture
evaporation
Location research
Aruba
Date
2026-03-23
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Publisher
University of Aruba
Language
en
ISSN
ISBN
Citations
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thesis Siguerd Obispo.pdf
Adobe PDF, 1.87 MB
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Abstract
Small state islands like Aruba are highly dependent on other countries for food. Vulnerable to natural calamities and impediments in food supply chain can cause difficulties and concerns to the local population. It is the need of time to focus on food security by reducing the import dependency and strengthening agriculture at local and commercial level. To strategize the focus on food security, indirect solar food dryer was tested for drying mango slices. This experimental study focused on the determination of temperature distribution within the solar dryer, drying kinetics, effect of slice thickness on drying process, and finally performance evaluation of solar dryer. The study of natural convection drying of mango slices indicated the feasibility of the drying process at existing climatic conditions. Temperature distribution within the FC indicated uniform temperature and maintained the drying air (HTF) temperature of 38 – 44 °C. It was a significant step in natural convection drying process. The drying curves were obtained to study drying kinetics and observed that maximum moisture was evaporated in the first 2 hours of drying process. The drying rate decreased in the last 4 hours of the drying process. Effect of slice thickness demonstrated decrease in drying rate as thickness increased. Thin layer modeling demonstrated Wang and Singh equation best fit with the experimental measurements. Performance evaluation of dryer showed the specific moisture extraction rate in the range of 0.07 to 0.12 kg of moisture evaporated per kWh of energy consumed.
Citation
Obispo, S. (2026, March 23). Natural convection drying of mango slices: An experimental study. [Bachelor thesis]. University of Aruba.