Drying kinetics of olive pomace in a fluidized bed dryer

Drying kinetics of olive pomace was investigated in a fluidized bed dryer. The drying experiments were performed at different temperatures of the drying air (50, 60, 70 and 80 °C) and bed heights of the sample (41, 52, and 63 mm), using a constant air velocity of 1.0 m/s. A constant rate period was not observed in the drying of olive pomace; all the drying process occurred in falling rate period. Ten thin layer drying models were evaluated and fitting to the experimental moisture data. The fit quality of the models was evaluated using the determination coefficient, chi-square, and root mean square error. Among the selected models, the Midilli et al. model was found to be the best model for describing the drying behaviour of olive pomace. For all drying experiments, the effective diffusivity values were found to be varying between 0.68 and 2.15 × 10−7 m2/s depending on air temperature and bed height of the sample. The activation energies were 34.05, 36.84 and 38.10 kJ/mol for 41, 52 and 63 mm bed height of the sample, respectively.