Abstract

Famurewa J.A.V and Emuekele P. O.

This study investigated the drying kinetics of cassava chips using fluidized bed dryer with a view to predicting the most suitable drying model for the drying of cassava (TMS30572 and TMS98/0581). The experiment was carried out using a 4x4x2 factorial; ( air velocities, air temperatures, and varieties of cassava) with three replications for each treatment.. Fresh cassava tubers were peeled, washed, drained and chipped using manual slicer. A 100 g of the wet chips was then subjected to drying using pre heated fluidized bed drier at a specific temperature and varied air velocity. The change in mass was recorded at constant time interval of 20 minutes until constant weight was achieved Twelve different mathematical drying models were fitted to the experimental data of the moisture ratio against the time using nonlinear regression analysis by Sigma Plot 10.0 and Microsoft Excel (2010). The models were compared based on their coefficients of determination (R 2 ), reduced chi-squares (χ2 ), root mean square errors (RMSE), and mean bias error (MBE). Modified Henderson and Pabis model was found to be the best mathematical model for describing the drying kinetics of cassava chips for TMS30572 and TMS98/0581 respectively having highest value of R 2 , least values of χ 2 , RMSE and MBE.