Kinetic models for evaluation of bovine bone drying by microwave freeze-drying

The reuse of bovine bone generates products such as bioceramics, bone meal for animal feed supplement, among others. In general, these products require a process such as drying, in which the variation of conditions is an important factor. The literature presents valuable information on the drying of this material from the microwave freeze-drying method (MFD), and even presents different power conditions, thermal regimes, among others. However, no research is presented on models that correlate the existing data with the kinetic constants in which they explain the behavior of bovine bone drying. Therefore, the objective of this work is the evaluation of the drying kinetics of bovine bone by means of mathematical and empirical models. The method for data extraction of drying curves from the literature was through the use of WebPlotDigitizer software. The estimation of the kinetic constants was based on exponential models where the best result was modified Page. In addition to that, this research analyzes the unification of the modified Henderson and Pabis models with Page and modified Page empirically and defines that the two models have a better fit with the experimental data of the moisture ratio (MR), validated by means of RMSE values less than 0.0208. Likewise, this research implemented a variation of the model for the prediction of temperature (T), for which the RMSE was acceptable. Furthermore, the observed versus predicted plots for the MR and T prediction do not show significant deviations. The empirical model defined in this research has potential for implementation in the control of the bovine bone drying operation with variation in power and process temperature.