A modeling study for moisture diffusivities and moisture transfer coefficients in drying of passion fruit peel

In the present work, the mass transfer characteristics, namely moisture diffusivity and moisture transfer coefficient, of passion fruit peel were evaluated using the analytical model proposed by Dincer and Dost. Passion fruit peels were dried in a single layer at different temperatures (50, 60, and 70 °C) and air velocities (2.0 and 3.5 m/s). The results showed a reasonably good agreement between the values predicted from the correlation and the experimental observations. The Biot number, effective moisture diffusivity, and mass transfer coefficient were computed and ranged between 0.1018 and 0.3199, 0.632 × 10−8 and 1.994 × 10−8 m2/s, and 4.53 × 10−7 and 8.702 × 10−7 m/s, respectively.