Determination of drying kinetics, specific energy consumption, shrinkage, and colour properties of pomegranate arils submitted to microwave and convective drying

In this study, the drying kinetics, effective moisture diffusivity (D-eff), specific energy consumption (SEC), colour, and shrinkage (S-b) of pomegranate arils were compared when dried by convective (CV) drying and microwave (MW) drying. The experiments were performed at air temperature of 50, 60, and 70 degrees C and air velocity of 1 m/s for CV drying and 270, 450, and 630W for MW drying. The results showed that increasing air temperature and MW power increased the D-eff. The calculations demonstrated that the maximum D-eff for pomegranate arils was obtained for MW drying (630W). Maximum SEC for pomegranate arils in the CV dryer was 145.12 kWh/ kg, whereas in the MW dryer was 35.42 kWh/kg. In MW dryer, the lowest values of colour change and shrinkage were 6.77 and 50.5%, respectively. Comprehensive comparison of the different drying methods (MW and CV) revealed that MW drying had best drying performance for pomegranate arils, considering the drying time, effective moisture diffusion, SEC, colour, and shrinkage.