Microwave Dehydration Of Sugar Cube: Thermophysical Investigation And Finite Element Solution

Finite element numerical solution was employed to solve coupled model of electromagnetic, heat and mass transfer phenomena in microwave dehydration of sugar cube. For microwave power 880 W, pulsing ratios 1.5, 2.5, 4.5 and 10 were applied to prevent thermal runaway. Colour quality of dried sugar cubes was assessed by calculating whiteness, yellowness and total colour difference. Results revealed that uniform heating as a major issue of drying was improved with pulsing ratio. Moreover, low pulsing ratios yielded to lower colour quality. Thus, preferable pulsing ratio based on heating uniformity and colour quality of dried sugar cube is 10.