MASS-TRANSFER DURING OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF BANANA - FICKIAN DIFFUSION IN CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION

Mass transfer during osmotic dehydration of banana has been studied. T he solution of Fick's law for unsteady stare mass transfer in cylindri cal configuration has been used to calculate the effective diffusion c oefficients over a range of temperature (25-35 degrees C) and concentr ation (40-70 degrees B) of osmotic solution. The effective diffusion c oefficient has been empirically correlated with the concentration and temperature of osmotic solution by an Arrhenius-type equation. A high degree of correlation (R-2 = 0.97) was observed between predicted and experimental values of the effective diffusion coefficient. (C) 1997 E lsevier Science Limited.