Modelling of drying kinetics
Figure 3 shows the decreasing trend of MR with
drying time. To describe the effect of microwave
output power on the drying kinetics of the Pandanus
leaves, 3 different semi-empirical thin layer drying
models as mentioned in Table 1 were used. Among
these models examined, the Page model wasobserved to be the most appropriate one for all the
experimental data with the highest value for the
coefficient of determination (R2) and lowest reduced
chi-square (χ2) and RMSE, compared with those
obtained for other models. The estimated parameters
and statistical analysis of the models examined for
the different drying conditions were illustrated in
Tables 2 and 3. It was observed that the value of
drying rate constant (k) increased with the increase
in microwave output power. This implies that with
the increase in microwave output power drying curve
becomes steeper indicating increase in drying rate.
The fitness of the data was illustrated in Figure 4.