Power Ultrasound Mass Transfer Enhancement in Food Drying

Power ultrasound application could constitute a way to enhance food drying in order to improve not only mass transfer but also product quality, since it does not significantly heat the material. The main aim of this work was to assess the influence of power ultrasound on the mass transfer process during drying of different products, carrot, persimmon and lemon peel. Convective drying kinetics were carried out with ultrasound (US experiments 21.8 kHz, 75 W), or without ultrasound application (AIR experiments) at air velocities ranging between 0.5–12 m s −1. Different geometries were used for each of the products: cubes in carrots (2 L = 8.5 mm), cylinders in persimmon (2 L = 30 mm and 2 R = 13 mm) and slabs in lemon peel (L = 10 mm). Drying kinetics were modelled by considering different diffusion models according to the geometry. The results show that air velocity and raw material characteristics play a role in convective drying kinetics assisted by power ultrasound. Power ultrasound increased effective moisture diffusivity at low air velocities for all the products. However, in the case of lemon peel, ultrasound also improved the drying rate at high air velocities. This behaviour may be explained by the disruption of the acoustic field at high air flow rates and the different level of intensity required due to the structure of the products. Therefore, the raw material constitutes an important variable to establish the influence of power ultrasound on convective drying.