Summary

The drying of agricultural products is widely used throughout the world to diminish the moisture content of the product, making microbial growth and chemical and biochemical reactions difficult, enabling safe storage for longer periods and also reducing the volume and mass to be transported. The aim of the present work was to evaluate and model the drying process of strawberries (Fragaria L.) and obtain the thermodynamic parameters at three different temperatures (40, 50 and 60°C). Fruits purchased at CEASA-DF with an initial moisture content of 93% (w.b.) were used. The experimental data were fitted to six mathematical models commonly employed to represent the drying step. The activation energy for the drying of strawberries and also the entropy, enthalpy and Gibbs free energy were determined. The Logarithmic model was the one that best fitted the drying phenomenon of strawberry fruits, presenting values for the mean relative error between 7.59 and 8.48%, with an estimated standard error between 0.03 and 0.06 and determination coefficient between 99.93 and 99.95%. The enthalpy of the drying process decreased with increase in drying temperature, with values of –481.21, –564.35 and –647.49 J mol^–1 for temperatures of 40, 50 and 60°C, respectively. The same trend occurred for entropy, with values of –238.35, –238.61 and –238.86 J mol^–1K^–1 for the temperatures of 40, 50 and 60°C, respectively. Gibbs free energy increased with increase in temperature, attaining values of 74,159.75, 76,544.54 and 78,931.90 J mol^–1 for the temperatures of 40, 50 and 60°C, respectively.

Key words:
Moisture content; Enthalpy; Entropy; Gibbs free energy