Modeling the Drying Kinetics of Plantain Chips under Forced and Free Convection

This research was focused on modeling the drying kinetics of plantain chips under forced and free convection conditions, and the selection of the appropriate thin-layer models that best described the drying characteristics of 2cm, 4cm and 5cm thickness of weight 2.5g, 4.4g and 5.1g respectively of plantain chips. The drying of the plantain chips samples was carried out at 50oC, and 80oC temperatures until the equilibrium condition was attained. The experimental moisture ratio values at each temperature were fitted to Lewis, Page and Modified-page thin-layer models. The Lewis model has average chi square and average coefficient of determination of 0.0012 and 0.9802 respectively while Modified Page has 0.0006 and 0.9879 respectively. The results show that Page model has the least average chi-square (Χ2) value and highest coefficient of determination (R2) value of 0.0008 and 0.9922 respectively. Therefore, Page model best described the drying characteristics of the plantain chips sample within 50oC - 800C temperature range.