Hubungan Penyusutan Luas Permukaan Terhadap Karakteristik Pengeringan Lapisan Tipis Singkong (Manihot esculenta Crantz)

Abstract

This study presents the thin layer drying of cassava sliced, which was conducted under controlled conditions of temperature and relative humidity (RH). The drying experiments were carried out on a laboratory dryer at temperatures from 40 to 70 °C and RH from 30 to 60 %. The drying process took place in the falling rate period, but the constant rate period was only on 50 °C with 60 % RH in short time. Drying curves from the experimental data were fitted to the different semi theoretical and empirical thin layer drying models. All of the models were investigated by comparing the coefficient of determination (R2), reduced chi-square (χ2) and root mean square error (RMSE) between the observed and the predicted moisture ratios. The Page model was the best to describe the drying characteristics of cassava slices based on this experiment. The shrinkage during drying played an important role to indicate the best quality of the dried product. Image acquisition system was used to capture and to process the changes in shape (area) of the dried products. It consists of a webcam, illumination, computer hardware, and software. The area of cassava slices was found to be decreasing in line with the decreasing moisture content almost linearly. Drying conditions, i.e. temperature and RH might affect the shrinkage but needs further study to find the relationship.