2013 ISES Solar World Congress Kinetics modeling of the drying of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) with solar energy.

Chickpea, (Cicer arietinum) is commonly known as garbanzo is a type of pulse, with one seedpod containing two or three peas. There are two main kinds of chickpeas: Desi, which has small, darker seeds and a rough coat, cultivated mostly in the Indian subcontinent, Ethiopia, Mexico, and Iran; and Kabuli, which has lighter coloured, larger seeds and a smoother coat. In 2011 in Mexico, 132 000 tons were produced for human consumption. The results observed in this work show that it is possible to dry chickpeas using an indirect-type solar dryer. The studied chickpeas came from Guanajuato State, in Mexico, and had an average moisture content of 0.52 kg water/kg dry mass (dm). At the end of the drying process this content was of 0.02 kg water/kg dm. The required time to accomplish this drying quality was 40 hours in April and 32 hours in May, 2012. The empirical model that best represented the process was the exponential one, with the three imposed conditions