The use of curvature and bias measures to discriminate among equilibrium moisture equations for mustard seed

The aim of this work was to analyze the main equilibrium equations used for grains to find the best way to represent the equilibrium conditions between mustard seed and air. The experimental study was based on the static method using saturated salt solutions to regulate the vapor pressure of the air surrounding the seeds. Since the majority of the sorption equilibrium equations are nonlinear, procedures available in the literature were used to validate the statistical properties of the least squares estimators. To discriminate, between five equations that represent the sorption equilibrium isotherms of mustard seeds, an approach based on nonlinear measures was used in this work. Results show that the Halsey modified equation is the best one to describe the experimental data.