Moisture diffusion and desorption isotherms for banana

The desorption isotherms for whole peeled banana, convection dried in warm air, have been measured and fitted by the Modified-Oswin and Modified-Chung-Pfost equations. The equations agreed with the water activity observed in commercial sun-dried banana packs from Thailand. The convective drying curves for peeled banana were determined and fitted by the Newton (exponential) and Diffusion models. The Newton model was found more effective, probably due to a surface resistance that develops during drying. The drying constant, K in the Newton model, was fitted to banana temperature by the Arrhenius equation. Moisture diffusivity results agreed with previous work, including the activation energy in the Arrhenius equation.