MODELLING OF THIN LAYER DRYING KINETICS OF COCOA BEANS DURING ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL DRYING

Drying experiments were conducted using air-ventilated oven and sun dryer to simulate the artificial and natural drying processes of cocoa beans. The drying data were fitted with several published thin layer drying models. A new model was introduced which is a combination of the Page and two-term drying model. Selection of the best model was investigated by comparing the determination of coefficient (R2), reduced chi-square ( 2) and root mean square error (RMSE) between the experimental and predicted values. The results showed that the new model was found best described the artificial and natural drying kinetics of cocoa under the conditions tested.