Natural convection drying kinetics of ‘Prata’ and ‘D’água’ banana cultivars (Musa ssp) by nonlinear regression models

Abstract Banana is among fruits most planted in tropical countries and belongs to the fruit group most consumed in the world; however, banana needs proper conservation techniques. The aim of this study was to describe the drying kinetics of ‘Prata’ and ‘D’agua’ banana cultivars at temperatures of 40 and 70°C, comparing the Henderson, STPE, Lewis, Page and Fick regression models, estimating the Absolute Drying Rate (ADR). Parameters were estimated with R and SAS Studio softwares, using for comparison and selection models of the R²aj, RSD and corrected Akaike Information Criteria. The Page and Fick models did not adjust, and the others presented good adjustment to data. The Henderson model was the most suitable to describe data of ‘Prata’ banana at both temperatures and ‘D’agua’ banana at 70°C and Lewis at 40°C for this cultivar. The drying rate of ‘Prata’ banana at temperatures of 40 and 70°C were 0.00079 g of water/ min and 0.00400 g of water/min respectively and for ‘D’agua’ banana, drying rates were 0.00111 g of water/min. and 0.00495 g of water/min., respectively. Using ADR, it was observed that in one third of the drying period, there was 70% of moisture loss at 70°C.