TITLE:
Experimental Study of the Drying Kinetics of the Coconut Shells (Nucifera) of Cameroon
AUTHORS:
Dieunedort Ndapeu, Ebénezer Njeugna, Sophie Brogly Bistac, Jean Yves Drean, Médard Fogue, Josepha Ngenefeme Foba
KEYWORDS:
Coconut Shells; Drying Model; Drying Kinetics; Effective Diffusivity; Activation Energy
JOURNAL NAME:
Materials Sciences and Applications,
Vol.4 No.12,
December
24,
2013
ABSTRACT: Water diffusion of two species of coconut shells (CS) nucifera from Cameroon, in the case of drying, was experimentally studied. The experiment was done with the aid of an oven, by the method of gravimetric batch control of the mass of the test samples with the temperatures varied from 70° to 180° Celsius. The shells of mature coconuts from two species were conserved in the laboratory at a temperature ranging between 20° and 23° Celsius for two months before being mechanically cleaned. This study allows not only the determination of the water content of the shells, but also the identification of the drying model. It is thus from the ten model tests, and the statistical analysis shows that the Midilli model best predicted this drying phenomenon. The coefficient of effective diffusion was determined at different temperatures which permitted the evaluation of the activation energy per the Arrhenius equation.