The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of solar-assisted spouted bed and open sun drying on the
drying rate and quality parameters of pea. Color, shrinkage, bulk and apparent densities, internal and bulk porosities,
rehydration capacity and microstructure were the quality parameters investigated in dried product.
Drying rate for solar-assisted spouted bed was about 3.5 times of drying rate for open sun drying. Air temperature
changed between 20 ◦C and 27.4 ◦C during open sun drying while temperature of air at the inlet of solar-assisted
spouted bed dryer varied between 35.3 ◦C and 65.5 ◦C during the experiments. Effective diffusivities were found to
be 0.64
×
10−10 and 3.27
×
10−10m2/s for open sun and solar-assisted spouted bed drying of pea, respectively. In color
analysis, it was observed that a* value increased while b* value decreased for both drying methods. Bulk density
and apparent density of peas dried under open sun was higher than that in solar-assisted spouted bed drier. In both
drying methods, internal and bulk porosities decreased. Shrinkage was more for open sun dried samples. Rehydration
capacity for solar-assisted spouted bed dried sample was higher than the one for open sun dried.