2018 Volume 24 Issue 1 Pages 55-62
The drying curves of pullulan, alginate, and blend films at 40, 50 and 60°C were investigated using gravimetric methods. Several mathematical models available in the literature were fitted to the experimental data. The Midilli- Kucuk model satisfactorily described drying kinetics of tested films with the highest R2 and the lowest RMSE, SSE values. For the pullulan-alginate samples, the drying rate increased monotonically with the increasing drying temperature and alginate content of resulting films. However, the heat and mass transfer coefficients of all samples were affected by the temperature during the constant-rate period. Among the temperature tested, effective diffusion coefficient values of tested samples increased progressively with increasing alginate content during the first falling-rate period, whereas this tendency was not observed during the second. Information obtained from this study is essential for designing equipment and optimizing drying parameters for pullulan-alginate edible films.
