Deshidratación de plátano (Musa paradisiaca) por medio de radiación solar en un secador directo

Abstract

The objective is to dehydrate banana (Musa paradisiaca) using two direct solar dryers. The purpose of dehydrating the banana, is to give an added value. The fruit is remove the peel, and cut into slices of 1.75 cm radius with a thickness of 0.525 cm. It is placed in two polymer mesh trays with dimensions of 24 cm by 34.2 cm. The initial moisture is determined, and weighed. Later they are introduced to solar dryers. For both dryers the humidity and the temperature of the medium are determined every 15 min, and the color is determined every hour. Finally, the moisture content of the final product is determined. Each test is done in triplicate. The percentage of humidity decreases from 57.23% to 20.87% in natural convection and 20.80% in forced convection. The drying time is 8 hours and the average operating temperature is 38.7 ° C for natural convection and 34.68 ° C for forced convection. In dehydration the percentage of humidity decreases 36.36% on average in the two forms of operation. In forced convection the product darkens less.