Osmotic dehydration of apricot: Kinetics and the effect of process parameters

Effective diffusion and mass transfer coefficients of water as well as solid were estimated. The transport coefficients for water loss and solid gain (De and k) increases with an increase in osmotic solution concentration and increase in temperature. Non-linear analysis of the estimated De and k of water and solute reveal that these values depend on temperature and concentration of the osmotic solution as well as the combined effect of temperature and concentration. In addition, the effect of the ratio of sample to solution on these transport coefficients was modeled. The statistical comparison methods such as χ2, MBE and RMSE were used to explore the confidence level of the models.