Cold Plasma Pretreatment in Plant Material Drying

Efficient production requires reliable scientific foundations for new energy-saving technologies and drying processes that are able to transform plant materials into functional products. Mathematical modeling and control can provide efficient drying of cold plasma pretreated plant materials and predict its results. The present research featured raw potatoes and apples that underwent an electrophysical treatment by atmospheric pressure plasma in an air gas medium. The Luikov drying model served as the main model of heat and mass transfer as a system of coupled differential equations of humidity and temperature potentials. The mathematical modeling procedure and the program code were implemented in the MathCAD software. The cold plasma pretreatment proved to decrease the drying time. A greater disintegration index resulted in a shorter total drying time. The mathematical modelling of the heat and mass transfer processes almost coincided with the experimental results. The analysis of kinetic transfer coefficients of heat, moisture, and pressure potentials made it possible to develop a control parameter of the drying process of plant materials enti tled as the disintegration index. The proposed mathematical model explained the emerging effects, while the refined kinetic coefficients supported by experimental data clarified the processes in the drying material.