Abstract
Superheated steam is one of the most popular heating device in food processing. The drying sweet potato is specialty products in Hitachinaka area. The purpose of this study are to investigate thermophysical property of sweet potato. We compared the heat-transfer characteristics of micro-heater and superheated steam. Furthermore, we evaluated the heat transfer and thermal conductive capabilities using two heating equipments. The heat transfer coefficients and the thermal conductivity of sweet potato were determined by using heat flux sensor and thermocouples. The surface tissue configuration of heated sweet potato was observed by using electron microscope. As a result, we obtained the temperature distribution and heat property. The experimental results indicated the effectiveness of heating method for sweet potato.
