Drying of green bell pepper slices using an IR-assisted Spouted Bed Dryer: An assessment of drying kinetics and energy consumption

In the current investigation, an IR-assisted spouted bed dryer containing inert aluminum particles was employed for drying of Green Bell Pepper Slices (GBPS). In order to evaluate the dryer's performance, a completely randomized factorial design with three independent factors including drying temperature (50, 60, and 70 degrees C), mass percentage of inert particles to GBPS (0, 25, and 50%), and surface area of GBPS (1.44, 3.24, and 7.84 cm(2)) were used. According to findings, by using the inert particles with mass percentage of 25%, a reduction of around 25% in drying time was realized. However, increasing in the ratio to 50%, an increasing the drying time (56%) was noted. An optimum drying condition in terms of specific energy consumption (SEC) was achieved at an air temperature of 70 degrees C, 25% inert material and GBPS with a surface area of 1.44 cm(2). Moreover, a dimensionless model for describing the drying kinetics of GBPS was established and evaluated.