Osmotic dehydration and convective drying ofcoconut slices: Experimental determination and description using one-dimensional diffusion model

Mass migrations in coconut slices during osmotic dehydration and drying are described using a diffusion model with boundary condition of the third kind. the osmotic dehydration experiment was performed at 35_brix (water and sucrose) and 40 °c. the convective drying experiments were performed at 50, 60 and 70 °c. the one-dimensional solution of the diffusion equation for an infinite slab was coupled with an optimizer to determine the effective mass diffusivities d and convective mass transfer coefficients h of the five processes studied. the analyses of the obtained results indicate that there is a good agreement between each experimental dataset and the corresponding simulation using d and h determined by optimization.