A generic drying model for cassava products

Drying is a a critical step in many food processes, e.g. in the production of cassava flour. No specific Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tool is available to assist in the design of cassava drying equipment. In this study, a convective-diffusive model was selected in the literature for its genericity and suitability for engineering purposes. Three drying kinetics were sufficient to identify the required temperature-dependent effective diffusivity. They were measured under 40-80 & DEG;C air, flowing perpendicular to the cassava cylinders. For validation, a total of 36 kinetics were measured on four cassava products of different origins, levels of transformation, geometries, dried in air flows at 40-80 & DEG;C, parallel or perpendicular to the product layer. Using 3 properties taken from the literature and few straightforward lab measurements, the model was able to accurately predict (RMSE: 0.04 d.b.) all drying kinetics for cassava products from flour to root cuts.