Comparison of electrohydrodynamic and hot-air drying of the quince slices

Electrohydrodynamic is one of the new methods of drying with low energy consumption, which has attracted much attention from the investigators in recent years. In this study, the quince slices have been dried by an electrohydrodynamic method with variable voltage (at three levels of 5, 7, 9 kV) and by a hot-air drying with variable temperature (at three levels of 50, 60 and 70 degrees C). The effect of two drying methods on drying kinetics, energy consumption, potent antioxidant activity and phenolic compounds of quince slices is investigated. Statistical results showed that the total phenolic compounds and the antioxidant capacity of the dried quince slices by the hot-air process is 1.37 and 1.15 times as much as those in electrohydrodynamic process, respectively, and the average energy by hot-air drying is 48.66 times as much as the average energy consumption of electrohydrodynamic method.