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OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF COCOS NUCIFERA L.: EFFECTS OF PROCESS FACTORS, COMPARATIVE PROCESS MODELLING AND SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
Authored By: Adeyi A. J.
Article Number: 1751488414
Received Date: April 25th 2025 Published Date: July 2nd 2025Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
Osmotic Dehydration (OD) improves product quality and shortens subsequent drying time; leading to energy saving, reduced environmental impact and overall sustainable production. This study investigated the OD characteristics of Cocos nucifera at varied OD process factors; that is, temperature (30 and 50OC), sugar concentration (30, 40 and 50%w/w) and time (10, 20, 60, 80, 120, 140, 160, and 180 min). The OD process was indicated with moisture loss (ML (%)) and solid gain (SG (%)). Furthermore, uni-variate empirical (Azuara and Magee) models and multivariate statistical (regression) model were comparatively utilized to interpret the observed OD process characteristics. The mechanisms of ML (%) and SG (%) action were determined through their respective effective diffusivity (Deff). Additionally, sensitivity analysis was used to rank the importance of the OD process factors to OD process indicators. Results showed that increment in OD process factors reduced ML (%) and increased SG (%). Azuara model had the highest efficiency (R2 = 0.998) of the OD process representation followed by regression model (R2 = 0.989) and Magee model (R2 = 0.890). The average was 1.5945E-09 and 1.4803E-09 for ML(%) and SG (%), respectively. Sensitivity analysis showed that time, sugar concentration and temperature are responsible for 74.8, 23.7 and 1.5% variation in ML (%) and 75.1, 22.9 and 2.0% variation in SG (%), respectively. These results are important to standardizing Cocos nucifera OD processing prior to other required post-harvest operations such as drying.
Adeyi A. J. (2025). Osmotic Dehydration of Cocos nucifera L.: Effects of process factors, comparative process modelling and sensitivity analysis. Journal of Science, Technology, and Education (JSTE); www.nsukjste.com/ 9(11), 137-155
- Adeyi A. J.
- Department of Forest Product Development and Utilization Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan