Publications scientifiques
2012Article de revueanglais
Sorption Isotherms and Drying Characteristic Curve of Fermented Cocoa
Auteurs
Université de Yaoundé I
Autres auteurs
Abraham Kanmogne
Yves Jannot
B. Lips
Vérification de la session…
Publications scientifiques
Abraham Kanmogne
Yves Jannot
B. Lips
An experimental study has been carried out on fermented coca beans. First, the desorption isotherms have been experimentally determined at 40 and 55°C. Second, an experimental study of the convective drying of fermented cocoa has been achieved under different operative conditions: drying air speed: 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 m.s -1 ; drying temperature: 40 and 55°C; thickness of cocoa layer: 2, 3 and 4 cm. After testing several sorption isotherm models, it was shown that the Modified-Oswin's equation enables a good reconstitution of experimental results with a Root Mean Square Deviation of 0.0071 kgw.kgdb -1 between the experimental and the modelled values of the cocoa water content (varying from 0.02 to 0.12 kgw.kgdb -1 ). Another result is that the drying curves may be satisfactorily represented by the Drying Characterisitc Curve (DCC) model. It was also found that the cocoa beans characteristic curve does not depend strongly on the product layer thickness and may be represented by a power function which exponent has been determined.