DIFFUSIVITY COEFFICIENT ESTIMATION IN CONVECTIVE THIN-LAYER DRYING OF MORINGA OLEIFERA LAM PROTEIN CONCENTRATE.

Costa, D. G.; Lima, L. A. L. C.; Soares, D. C.,Nunes, T. P., Júnior, A. M. O.

Universidade Federal de Sergipe - UFS, Cidade Universitária, "Prof. José Aloísio de Campos", 49.100-000, Aracaju, Sergipe, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]
Moringa’s Oleifera leaf has excellent potential nutritious, being a source of protein, vitamins and minerals, and also easy to grow in semi-arid regions. A protein source is concentrated of leaves that requires special techniques such as drying for extended shelf-life. Several parameters influence the process and the effective diffusivity coefficient is one of the most important. This study aimed to estimate the diffusivity coefficient of Moringa protein concentrate with a thickness of 0.95 cm in a convective drying process performed using a tray drier at 40 ° C and 55 ° C. The experiments were performed in triplicate. The model used follows Fick's second law for flat plate geometry, with the application of nonlinear regression in STATISTICA® 11.0 using Levenberg-Marquadt method. The diffusivity coefficient of the obtained concentrate at a temperature of 40 ° C was 5.565 x10-10 m² / s, and 9,34 x10-10 m² / s at 55 ° C,. Fick's model has been properly adjusted to the experimental data. It was noted that this result is satisfactory and is within the range for food products with less reduction in nutritional quality..It was observed that effective diffusivity, calculated by Fick’s law, increased with temperature.