Analysing the Microwave Drying Process of Potato, Apple and Onion Samples from Energetic Point of View

Abstract

From the practical point of view the efficiency of the energy transfer during drying must be considered as dominant parameter. Although the energy consumption of dehydration under microwave conditions is theoretically lower even by an order of magnitude than that of convective drying, the real efficiency of energy transfer in the microwave field is influenced by numerous factors. In this study, the most determinative relations between the energy transfer efficiency and the drying parameters were investigated. During the experiments several different drying parameters were set up to study the effects of domain variables in the apple, potato and onion drying process. Based on laboratory experiment, we determined the typical energy efficiency factors for microwave drying of the investigated samples. Furthermore, we detected the non-thermal effect of the microwave energy