Fluidized bed drying behaviour of moringa leaves and the influence of temperature on the calcium content

Abstract

Sustainable food production has become increasingly important. Calcium-rich moringa leaves locally grown in warm climates may be a sustainable source of nutrients and many derived products. Drying is essential for preserving and processing moringa. To optimise the drying, it is important to understand the plant's drying characteristics. Based on fluidized bed drying, we investigated established drying models in predicting the experimental results. The experiments were conducted using drying air temperatures from 70 °C to 90 °C and air speeds of 2 m/s, 3 m/s and 4 m/s. The measured drying curved were fitted to the drying models and compared using non-linear regression analysis. It is revealed that the Aghabashlo's model can describe the drying behaviour of moringa leaves with the highest R2 of 0.994. Drying air temperature and speed are significant factors influencing the drying rate. The calcium content in moringa leaves was measured to assess the result of increasing temperatures.

Keywords

• Sustainable food
• Drying kinetics
• Moringa leaves
• Fluidized bed
• Drying temperature