Modeling Drying Kinetics of Mustard in Fluidized Bed

Mustard (Brassica juncea), one of the popular oil seeds, is investigated for drying in Batch fluidized beds. Experiments were conducted to assess the kinetics of drying for the variation in the inlet air temperature, the inlet air flow rate and the solids holdup in the fluidized bed. The drying rate was found to increase significantly with increase in temperature and with flow rate of the heating medium, while decrease with increase in solids holdup. The duration of constant rate period was found to be insignificant, considering the total duration of drying. The drying rate was compared with various exponential time decay models and the model parameters were evaluated. The page model was found to match the experimental data very closely with the maximum root mean square error (RMSE) of less the 2.0%. The experimental data were also modeled using Fick's diffusion equation and the effective diffusivity coefficients was found to be within 1.69*10-11 to 3.26*10-11m2/s for the range of experimental data covered in the present study with RMSE less than 4%.