Ultrasonic-Assisted Osmotic Dehydration of Carrot Followed by Convective Drying with Continuous and Intermittent Heating

The aim of the studies was to analyze the effect of ultrasound action on osmotic pretreatment and then on drying kinetics in continuous and intermittent drying conditions, and on the final product quality. This article presents the results of intermittent-convective drying of carrot preceded by ultrasonic assisted osmotic dehydration in fructose aqueous solutions. The theoretical drying kinetics developed from the numerical solution of mathematical model is validated using the experimental data. It has been shown that combination of ultrasonic assisted osmosis with intermittent-convective drying accelerates the drying process and improves the quality of dried biomaterial. A good adherence of the numerically determined kinetic curves confirms the usefulness of the presented model and its possible application to construction of controlled and optimized drying processes.