REDUCTION OF HCN LEVEL IN CASSAVA (Manihot esculenta Crantz) LEAVES BY OPTIMIZED HEATED AIR DRYING HAZEL ASPA CASIMINA

SUBMITTED TO: THE FACULTY OF THE AGRICULTURAL AND BIO-PROCESS DIVISION INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND AGRO-INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES LOS BAOS IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING (Specialized in Agricultural and Bio-Process Engineering)

APRIL 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE TITLE PAGE ACCEPTANCE SHEET i BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii LIST OF FIGURES iv LIST OF TABLES v ABSTRACT vi INTRODUCTION Background of the Study 1 Significance of the Study 3 Objectives of the Study 7 Time and Place of the Study 7 Scope and Limitations of the Study 8 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 9 Cassava Production 9 Cassava Uses 10 Nutritional Composition of Cassava 11 Nutritional Value of Cassava Leaves 15 Toxicity of Cassava 15

Cassava Varieties 17 Drying: Its Importance and Theory 18 Factors to be considered in Drying 19 Drying Temperature 19 Air Properties 19 Air Flow Rate 20 Relative Humidity 20 Nutritional Value 20 Present Drying Practices 21 Heated Air Drying 21 Box and Behnken Design 21 Colorimetric Method of Chemical Analysis 22 MATERIALS AND METHODS 24 Materials and Equipment 24 Procedure 25 Procurement and Selection of Cassava Leaves 25 Preparation of the Samples 25 Initial Moisture Content Determination 26 Conditioning of the Laboratory Dryer 27 Determination of Drying Air Velocities 27 Drying Procedure 28 Calculation of Response Parameters 29 Final Moisture Content 29 Drying Rate 30 Moisture Ratio 30 Experimental Design 31 Statistical Analysis 33 HCN Level Content Evaluation of Dried Cassava Leaves 34 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 35 Drying Rate 35 Moisture Ratio 36 Dynamic Equilibrium Moisture Content 37 Analysis of the Effects of the Drying Parameters on the Response Variables 38 Response Surface Regression Optimization 43 Verification of the Optimum Conditions for Drying 45 Thin Layer Modeling for Drying Cassava Leaves 46 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 65 RECOMMENDATIONS 66 REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix A. Table of Sample data Sheets Appendix B. Initial Moisture Content Data Appendix C. Drying Data Appendix D. The SAS Program Output
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LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE TITLE PAGE 1 Fresh cassava (Manihot eculentaesculenta Crantz) leaves 3 2a Spectrophotometer used for the colorimetric method of HCN analysis 23 2b Samples to be placed in the spectrophotometer 23 3 Cassava plantation at the Institute of Plant Breeding 25 Los Baos, Laguna 4 CarboliteTM Convection Oven 26

5 Initial and Final appearance of the sample inside the oven 27 6 Cassava leaves in trays after placed inside the dryer 29 7 Average Drying Rate of 15 Drying Treatments 35 8 Average Moisture Ratio of 15 Drying Treatments 36 9 Plot of responses at optimum conditions and desirability 44 10 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 1 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 51 11 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 2 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 52 12 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 3 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 53 13 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 4 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 54 14 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 5 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 55 15 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 6 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 56 11 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 7 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 57 12 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 8 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 58 13 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 9 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 59 14 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 10 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 60 15 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 11 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 61 16 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 12 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 62 17 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 13 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 63 18 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 14 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 64 19 Moisture Ratio vs. Drying Time of Drying Run 15 using (a) Best Fit Model and (b) Exponential Model 65 20 Plot of MR against time for Run 3 that represented the best model equation 66

Comment [evc1]: Incomplete list!!!!!

LIST OF TABLES TABLE TITLE PAGE 1 Complete chemical composition of cassava crop 11 2 Nutritional content of some vegetables and staple foods 15 3 Air Velocity Determination 28 4 Coded values for the independent and dependent parameters. 31 5 Combination of independent parameters for 15 drying runs 32 6 Summary of the experimental data showing the independent variables used and response variables. 37 7 Significance of the effect of the drying parameters on the response variables by ANOVA 38 8 ANOVA showing the independent parameters as a linear, quadratic or interaction terms on each of the response variables. 40 9 Regression Coefficients of the second order polynomials illustrating the relations between the response and independent parameters. 42 10 Predicted responses at optimum conditions of independent parameters 44 11 Summary of the responses observed and verified using the optimum drying conditions 45 12 Regression Models for 15 Drying Runs 46 13 Initial and final HCN content (ppm) of cassava leaves after drying application. 68

ABSTRACT CASIMINA, HAZEL A., University of the Philippines Los Baos, MARCH 2010. Reduction of HCN Content Level in Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Leaves by Optimized Heated Air Drying. Adviser: Dr. Engelbert K. Peralta The study dealt with the reduction of hydrocyanide (HCN) content in cassava leaves at the optimum drying conditions obtained through heated air drying. In drying, the Box and Behnken experimental design with 15 experimental test runs was used with temperature (50C, 60C and 70C), air flow rate (0.09 m 3/s, 0.075 m3/s and 0.06 m3/s) and tray loading density (100g/tray, 200g/tray, and 300g/tray) as the independent parameters. The experiment investigated the effects of the independent parameters to the response parameters that included the (1) dynamic equilibrium moisture content, (2) moisture ratio and (3) drying rate. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed that the drying temperature significantly affected the EMC, the drying rate and the moisture ratio at 95% level of confidence; the loading density significantly affected the EMC and drying rate at 95% level of confidence; whereas the air flow rate only had significant effect on the EMC. In addition, regression fitting that adequately described the experimental drying resulted in a polynomial model in the form of: MR = 1.2565606 0.018566653t + 0.000102176t2 2.46x10-7t3 The drying experimental results showed an optimum condition of drying cassava leaves at 70C for drying temperature, 0.06m3/s for air flow rate and 150g/tray for the loading. At this particular optimum condition, the predicted values for the EMC, moisture ratio and drying rate were 23.46%, 0.28 m 3/s and 1.13 %db/min, respectively, with a desirability of 76%. The actual values of the response parameters were compared with the predicted values at optimum conditions with deviations ranging from 0.0013 to 0.278. Three (3) additional runs were conducted to verify the results of the obtained optimum conditions. The dried product of the three runs which used the optimum conditions were subjected to colorimetric method for HCN analysis. Based on the result, a 91.05 91.8% removal of HCN was obtained, which gave a low percentage of HCN remained in the leaves.
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