International Journal of Applied Engineering Research

ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 8, Number 9 (2013) pp. 1053-1066

Research India Publications
http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

Thin Layer Drying Kinetics and Modelling of

Spinacia oleracea Leaves
Prithvi Simha1 and Ashita Gugalia 1
1

Mass Transfer Laboratory, Chemical Engineering Division,

School of Mechanical and Building Sciences (SMBS),
VIT University, Vellore - 632014, Tamil Nadu, India.
1
prithvisimha092@gmail.com
gugalia.ashita@gmail.com

Abstract
In the present work, spinach samples were dried using three different drying
techniques namely sun, conventional and microwave. Drying experiments
were conducted using a constant air velocity and temperature but varying
microwave output power. Drying rate enhanced in case of microwave
compared to artificial and natural air with lower drying time. The experimental
drying data of spinach were applied to seven moisture ratio models, given in
literature. Nonlinear regression analysis was performed to relate the
parameters of the models with the drying conditions. The performances of
these models were evaluated by comparing the coefficient of determination
(R2), standard error and residual sum of squares values. Among all the models,
the Parabolic, Page and Midilli models were found to be the best for
explaining the drying characteristics of spinach leaves with respect to sun,
conventional and microwave treatment. The effective moisture diffusivity was
in the range of 10-9- 10-10 m2/sec in all the treatments studied.
Keywords: Spinach, Effective Diffusivity, Modelling, Re-hydration, Nonlinear
Regression

INTRODUCTION
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is an edible flowering plant in the family
of Amaranthaceae. It is native to central and south-western Asia. In India, it is
cultivated in almost all the states. Spinach has a high nutritional value and is
extremely rich in antioxidants, especially when fresh, steamed, or quickly boiled. It is
a rich source of vitamin A, E, K, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, folic acid,

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Prithvi Simha and Ashita Gugalia

copper, protein, phosphorus, zinc and niacin. Spinach is low in calories and is a good
source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) [1]. Ascorbic acid is an important nutrient in
vegetables. It is a hydro-soluble vitamin and more sensitive to heat, oxygen, light and
considered to be highly sensitive to losses during processing [2].Spinach is a
vegetable which rapidly perishes after harvest and which is consumed only in the
product season. It is sold loose, bunched, packaged fresh in bags, canned, or frozen.
Drying is the one of the storage methods, which has the capability of extending the
consumption period of spinach while maintaining its vitamin content.
Drying processes not only inhibit microbial growth but also several biological and
chemical degradation reactions; nevertheless, they also affect nutritional
characteristics leading to the collapse of vegetable tissues and the degradation of
vitamins and antioxidants. Moreover, in the last 30 years the need of new
technologies have lead to the development of several dehydration methods such as
hot air dehydration, osmotic dehydration, microwave dehydration, infrared (IR)
dehydration, ultrasonic dewatering, hybrid technologies, etc. The introduction of these
technologies in food industry has increased the quality of dried vegetables leading to
an exponential increase of the market of these products. During the drying processes,
the major factor of all the stated techniques is the mass transfer of water from
vegetable tissues to its surrounding and vice versa. This transfer occurs through
several mechanisms such as capillary flow, diffusion of water due to concentration
differences, surface diffusion, vapor diffusion in the pores due to pressure gradient
and water vaporization-condensation [3], thus, making drying a very complex
phenomenon. Fundamental research with aid of mathematical modeling and
numerical simulation provides an extremely powerful tool for investigating the
complicated physics that evolve during the drying of wet materials [4].
In this project, drying equations are developed for spinach leaves with respect to
sun, convective air and microwave drying techniques. Experiments were performed
by varying microwave output power and initial moisture content. The resulting
moisture values were fitted to seven different empirical models. The model having
highest correlation coefficient (R2) and lowest standard error and residual sum of
squares value was determined to be the most relevant one. Thus, the present study was
conducted with following objectives:
(i) To study the drying rates, drying time and effective diffusivity of spinach for
different techniques; (ii) To determine change in quality of spinach (iii) To select the
best model to describe the behaviour of spinach in all the three cases and develop the
respective drying equation.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

Fresh spinach leaves were procured from local market everyday prior to the
experiment. They were washed with tap water and the moisture on the wet sample
surface was removed with filter paper. They were weighed according to the need of
the experiment. This step was followed by the treatment in different drying
techniques. Furthermore, the moisture content was determined by placing the initially
dried samples in a hot air oven set at 60C until bone dry, finally the weight of sample

Thin Layer Drying Kinetics and Modelling of Spinacia oleracea Leaves

1055

was noted. Another set of experiments were performed by increasing the initial
moisture content by soaking it in 2 litres of water. The motive was to find the effect of
initial moisture content on drying rate.
A. Sun Drying
100 grams of spinach was weighed and taken to a place where exposure to sunlight
was maximum. The leaves were at a considerable height from ground, thus,
eliminating the possibility of mass transfer through ground. The leaves were spread
on a thick stack of newspapers such that they were not touching each other.
Experiments were carried out usually from 9 am to 5 pm when the suns light was
substantial except on humid days.
B. Conventional Drying
The drying experiments were performed in tray dryer at constant air velocity and
temperature (65 C). The dryer was started at about 30 min before the drying
experiments to achieve steady-state conditions before each drying run.100 grams of
spinach was weighed and was placed in the dryer. Initially, the weight on the scale
was set such that it pointed the zero level on short scale. Each time the weight on the
long scale was reduced by 9 grams and corresponding time taken was noted until case
hardening occurred.
C. Microwave Drying
Drying treatment was performed in a domestic digital microwave oven (Samsung C103F, Thailand) with technical features of 230 V and 50 Hz. The microwave oven has
the capability of operating at five different microwave stages, being 100, 180, 300,
600 and 900W. The diameter of the plate was 250 mm and consisted of a rotating
glass plate with 280 mm diameter at the base of the oven. Time adjustment is done
with the aid of a digital clock located on the oven.
Drying trials were carried out at two different microwave generation power being
180 and 300 W. These two powers are preferred for drying of fruits and vegetables
taking into account the damage of leaves or fruits. The spinach leaves to be dried were
25 grams in weight. Rotating glass plate was removed from the oven periodically
(every 5 or 10 s according to the need of experiment) during the drying period, and
the moisture loss was determined by weighing the plate using digital balance with
0.01 g precision. During all experimentations, the loss of weight of the sample was
continuously monitored with time and drying was continued until the samples achieve
its final moisture content (equilibrium moisture content).

ANALYSIS of DRYING DATA

The analyses comprised of plotting the curves between moisture content, drying rate
and moisture ratio versus time and comparing the results of all three types of drying
techniques. Seven popular thin layer drying models were used to predict the relation
between moisture ratio and drying time. DATAFIT 9.0(trial version) [5] was used for
fitting the curves into the models.

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Prithvi Simha and Ashita Gugalia

The coefficient of determination (R2) [6] was used as the primary criteria to select
the best equation to account for variation in the drying curves of the dried samples:
(MRpre, i MRexp, avg)
(MRexp, i MRexp, avg)
The drying rate and moisture ratio of spinach leaves were calculated using the
following equations:
X=
; MR =
; N=
where , wi and wb are the wet weight at any time t , and bone dry weight of leaves, X
is the moisture content at particular time (kg water/kg dry solid), MR denotes
moisture ratio, X0 and Xe are the initial and equilibrium moisture contents (kg
water/kg dry solid) respectively. N is the drying rate (kg dry solid/m2 hr), Ss and A
are the bone dry weight and area of the tray or plate or newspaper respectively while t
denotes the time of drying(hr).
In general, drying of foods takes place in two periods, a constant rate and a falling
rate period. The mode of moisture movement within a hygroscopic solid during the
falling rate period could be represented by effective moisture diffusion phenomenon
and represents an overall mass transport property of water in the material. During
drying it can be assumed that diffusivity, as explained with Ficks diffusion equation
is the only physical mechanism to transfer the water to surface [7]. Effective moisture
diffusivity which is affected by composition, moisture content, temperature and
porosity of the material, is used due to the limited information on the mechanism of
moisture movement during drying and complexity of the process [8]. For the solution
of Ficks diffusion equation, the leaves were assumed to be slabs of thickness 1 mm
and the diffusivity was calculated using the simplification for longer drying times
yielding a linear equation where diffusivity can be obtained from the slope of the plot
[9].
8
Deff.
ln(MR) = ln
(
. )
4
where, MR is the moisture ratio at specific time, Deff denotes effective diffusivity in
m2/sec , L and t are the thickness of leaves(m) and time taken(hr) for drying
respectively.
Based on the criteria of highest R2, the best model describing the thin layer drying
characteristics was chosen.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

A. Drying Curves
The moisture ratio versus time curves for the sun and conventional drying treatments
are shown in Fig.1. In general the curves show a decreasing trend as drying
progresses. It is obvious that sun drying recorded the longest drying time as
temperatures fluctuated according to the ambient which is very much lower than the

Thin Layer Drying Kinetics and Modelling of Spinacia oleracea Leaves

1057

temperature used in artificial hot air drying (6080 C). This result in slower drying
rates. It can be observed from Fig.1 that time taken for the moisture content to come
down to 10% was 5 hrs in case of sun drying than that of 3 hrs in case of
conventional, though same initial amount of spinach was taken.
1
0.9
0.8
0.7

MR

0.6
0.5

sun
conventional

0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0

time3(hrs)

Fig. 1: Comparing Sun and Conventional Drying- Moisture Ratio vs time

The drying rate curves are presented in Fig. 2. In both the treatments constant rate
periods were very small, most of the drying took place in falling rate period as
indicated by the curves. It is true that there was only a small amount of free water
present on the surface and drying mechanism was mainly controlled by diffusion of
bound water. Drying rate is seen to be greater in the initial stages (1.8-1.6 kg dry
solid/ m2 hr and 0.2-0.1 kg dry solid/ m2 hr for conventional and sun drying technique
respectively until a moisture content of 2 kg water/kg dry solid. Beyond this moisture
content, drying rates only deviated slightly from each other for both sun and
conventional; this continued till the end. Moreover, it can be observed from plot that
rate of drying in conventional dryer is more compared to that of sun drying, but the
added value of the above statement is reduced by saying that drier will consume large
amount of energy compared to sun drying because it is a natural source. Thus,
depending upon the requirement of the product, either of the two drying techniques
may be used.

1058

Prithvi Simha and Ashita Gugalia

1.8

Drying rate (kg dr solid/m2 hr

1.6
1.4
1.2
1
conventional

0.8

sun

0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0

moisture content (kg water/kg dry solid)

Fig. 2: Comparing Sun and Conventional Drying- Drying rate vs moisture content

To investigate the effect of microwave output power on moisture content,

moisture ratio, drying time, two microwave output powers 180 and 300W were used
for drying of 25 grams spinach leaves as mentioned earlier. 180 and 300W were
chosen to avoid spoilage of spinach leaves. The moisture content of the material was
very high during the initial phase of the drying which resulted in a higher absorption
of microwave power and higher drying rates due to the superior moisture diffusion.
As the drying progressed, the loss of moisture in the product caused a decrease in the
absorption of microwave power and resulted in a fall in the drying rate. The drying
rates increased with the increase of microwave power levels (Fig 3). Thus, microwave
power level had a positive effect on the drying rates. These results are in agreement
with previous studies by Sharma and Prasad, 2001[10].
As the microwave output power was increased, the drying time of samples
significantly decreased. By working at 300W instead of 180 W, the drying time was
shortened by 16.7%. During the drying of 25 g spinach leaves at two different
microwave powers, a total of 22 +0.06g of weight loss occurred from each drying
sample. The quantities of moisture removed from the material in every 10 s time
period of drying cycle at two different microwave power levels are given in Fig. 4.

Thin Layer Drying Kinetics and Modelling of Spinacia oleracea Leaves

1059

Drying rate(kg dry solid/m2 hr)

20

15

10

180W
300W

X (kg water/kg dry solid)

0
0

10

11

Fig. 3: Microwave Treatment (180W and 300W) : Drying curves

Moisture quantity lost by the material in every 10 sec

2.5

300W
180W

0
0

50

100

150
200
Drying Time (sec)

250

300

350

Fig. 4: Microwave Treatment (180W and 300W): Variation of moisture lost in 10

sec(Y) vs Drying time (X)

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Prithvi Simha and Ashita Gugalia

Maximum value of moisture removed from the material at 300W microwave

power (2.8 g) was obtained between 20th and 25th sec of the drying period. The value
of maximum evaporation between 170th and 200th seconds of the drying period at
180 W microwave powers was determined as 2 grams. Thus, the above observations
validate the fact that increase in microwave power increases the rate of moisture
removal though, energy consumption also increases.
B. Modelling of Drying Kinetics
Microwave drying kinetics of spinach leaves were described using the drying data.
Seven different semi-empirical thin layer drying models as mentioned in Table 1 were
used.
Among these models examined, the moisture ratio followed parabolic model in
case of sun drying, page model in tray drying while the Midilli model was observed to
be the most appropriate one for microwave drying with the higher value for the
coefficient of determination (R2) and lower standard error and RSS compared with
those obtained for other models. Dwivedy [17], also reported that Midilli model is the
best model describing the microwave drying behaviour of coriander and parsley
leaves. The estimated parameters and statistical analysis of the models examined for
the different drying conditions are illustrated in Table 2.
TABLE I: MATHEMATICAL
CHARACTERISTICS
Empirical Model
Midilli
Page
Parabolic
Logarithmic
Wang and Singh
Henderson and Pabis
Lewis

MODEL

EQUATIONS

Equation
MR = a.exp(-ktn) + bt
MR = exp(-kt)n
MR = c + bt + at2
MR = a.exp(-kt) + b
MR = 1 + bt + at2
MR = a.exp(-kt)
MR = exp(-kt)

FOR

References
[11]
[12]
[10]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]

DRYING

Thin Layer Drying Kinetics and Modelling of Spinacia oleracea Leaves

1061

TABLE II: ANALYSIS OF MODEL FOR DIFFERENT DRYING TECHNIQUES

Type of
Drying

Model
Name
Midilli

R2

Std.
RSS
Error
0.99722 0.01925 0.00927

Page
0.99528 0.02416 0.01575
Parabolic 0.98882 0.03789 0.03733
Microwave Logarithmic 0.98707 0.04074 0.04316
(180 W)
Wang and 0.97477 0.05585 0.08421
Singh
Henderson 0.93529 0.08945 0.21603
& Pabis
Lewis 0.87704 0.12108 0.41047
Midilli 0.99692 0.01759 0.00773

Coefficients
a = 0.983; b = -9.753;
k = 0.523, n = 1.963
k = 0.163; n= 2.008
a = 0.024; b = -0.358;
c = 1.129
a = 2.109; b = -0.983;
k = 0.172
a = 0.057;
b = -0.253
a = 1.265; k=0.519

k= -0.410
a = 0.998; b = 5.134;
k = 0.697;n = 1.697
Page
0.99498 0.0216 0.01261
k = 0.687; n= 1.64
Parabolic 0.98246 0.04115 0.04403 a = 8.768; b = -0.615; c = 1.044
Microwave Logarithmic 0.98099 0.04205 0.04773 a = 1.279; b = -2.144; k = 0.986
(300W)
Wang and 0.97416 0.04995 0.06487
a = 8.158; b = -0.579
Singh
Henderson 0.97197 0.05105 0.07036
a = 1.278; k=1.048
& Pabis
Lewis
0.9432 0.07136 0.14258
k= 0.841
Parabolic 0.97689 0.05502 0.02422
a = 1.682; b = -7.937;
c = 0.933
Wang and 0.96963 0.05946 0.03182
a = 1.904; b = -8.777
Singh
Sun
Lewis 0.17238 0.29449 0.86726
a=1
Drying
Henderson 0.17238 0.31042 0.86726
a = 1; k = 1
& Pabis
Page
0.17238 0.31042 0.86726
k = 1; n = 1
Page
0.99495 0.02311 0.00534
k = 5.038; n = 0.802
Tray
Parabolic 0.95663 0.07135 0.04582
a = 3.871; b = -1.155;
Dryer
c = 0.843
Wang and 0.87878 0.11316 0.12806
a = 5.567; b = -1.537
Singh

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Prithvi Simha and Ashita Gugalia

It was observed that the value of drying rate constant (k) increased with the
increase in microwave output power. This implies that with the increase in microwave
output power drying curve becomes steeper indicating faster drying rate. The fitness
of the data is illustrated in Figures 5 and 6.

Fig. 5: Fitness of Midilli model for microwave drying.

Fig. 6: Fitness of Page model for microwave drying.

C. Moisture Diffusivity
The effective moisture diffusivity was calculated by using the method of slopes.
According to the experimental data obtained at various microwave output power
levels, the logarithm of moisture ratio values, ln (MR), were plotted against drying
time (t). The linearity of the relationship between ln (MR) and drying time is
illustrated in Figure 7 and 8 for various techniques of drying (with R2 more than 0.90
for all the treatments).

Thin Layer Drying Kinetics and Modelling of Spinacia oleracea Leaves

1063

0
0

50

100

150

200

-1

250

300

350

y = -0.015x + 0.877
R = 0.906

-2
360W
ln(MR)

180W

-3

Linear (360W)

y = -0.024x + 0.665
R = 0.984

Linear (180W)

-4

-5

Time (sec)

-6

Fig. 7: Plot of ln(MR) vs time to find effective diffusivity for Microwave Drying
0
0

-1

y = -0.975x + 0.259
R = 0.931
sun

-2
ln(MR)

conventional
-3

y = -1.374x - 0.028
R = 0.984

Linear (sun)
Linear
(conventional)

-4

-5

-6

Time(hrs)

Fig. 8: Plot of ln(MR) vs time to find effective diffusivity for Sun and Conventional
Drying.

1064

Prithvi Simha and Ashita Gugalia

The effective moisture diffusivity values (Deff) were calculated. The range of
moisture diffusivities varied from 10-9 10-10 m2/sec which is similar as given by
Ibrahim [18].Though similar trends were observed in all the techniques, effective
diffusivity was found to be higher in case of microwave drying (6.085 x 10-9 m2/sec
and 9.736x 10-9 m2/sec for 180 and 300W respectively)compared to other
techniques(1.099x10-10 and 1.5484x10-10 m2/sec for sun and conventional
respectively). This may be due to lower drying time under microwave treatment.
D. Comparison of all the three treatments
Though all the treatments were found to be effective in removing moisture from
spinach leaves, the rate of drying was higher for microwave irradiation. The drying
time taken by microwave was 61% less compared to sun drying and 42.45% less with
respect to conventional one for the same reduction of weight (90%). The product
obtained by conventional drying became brittle at the end of the experiment, while the
dried product obtained after irradiation and sun drying was very less brittle
comparatively. This limitation of conventional drying became a hindrance for further
moisture removal. The re-hydration properties were determined by immersion in
distilled water [19].Four leaves of the dried sample obtained after each treatment,
which were randomly chosen, were weighed and placed in a bucket with 400 mL
distilled water at 30 C. After 4 hrs, the sample was removed from bucket; the
surplus water was removed with tissue paper, and then weighed. The weights from all
drying techniques followed the following pattern: microwave irradiated >
conventional > sun. Microwaves caused violent evaporation of water in cells,
followed by a collapse of cell structure and partial disconnection of cells which leads
to increase in porosity followed by high absorption [20].
Though the treatment with irradiation is highly effective compared to sun and tray
drying, but within seconds after the commencement of irradiation, blackening of
leaves started and the product had a blackish green colour after 40 sec at microwave
power of 300W. The leaves blackened after 3 hrs in tray drying while no such
phenomenon was observed in case of sun dried samples. This may have occurred due
to high absorption of microwave irradiation. This decline in quality makes microwave
treatment less effective. Moving on to the mathematical modelling, it was surprising
to note that all the three models followed different equations. Parabolic, Page and
Midilli models were followed by sun, conventional and microwave moisture ratios
respectively. The Midilli model showed that moisture ratio in third case, depended
exponentially on nth power of time, indeed, this means the more amount of moisture
gets removed in very less time which proves efficiency of microwave drying
compared to others. Conventional drying was also efficient compared to sun drying,
in which moisture ratio depended exponentially on time, compared to polynomial (t2)
dependency of moisture ratio in latter case. Effective moisture diffusivity, calculated
from slope of ln (MR) vs. time, was of the order 109 compared to other two
techniques where it was of the order 10-10. This may be due to lower drying times and
higher rate of evaporation as seen in microwave drying.

Thin Layer Drying Kinetics and Modelling of Spinacia oleracea Leaves

1065

CONCLUSIONS
The drying characteristics were investigated using three different techniques, namely
sun, conventional and microwave. The parameters such as height from ground,
artificial air velocity and temperature were kept constant while microwave output
power was varied in the latter case. It was observed that the drying rate was maximum
during the microwave treatment while the quality of dried sample was better after the
first treatment. Drying Time was as short as 300 sec for microwave while it was as
large as 5-6hrs for sun. The conventional drying proved to be optimum while
evaluating each characteristic. The drying curve for sun and conventional drying
showed almost similar trend with most of the drying taking place in falling period
while it was very different from microwave one where the trend was found to be
different. This is because the heat was mainly generated in the bulk of the sample and
transported from the bulk to the environment. This type of temperature gradient can
only be generated by microwave heating. Microwave drying is caused by water
vapour pressure differences between interior and surface regions, which provide a
driving force for moisture transfer. Experimental data were compared with predicted
values of seven different models. Parabolic, Page and Midilli model was found to be
best suited for the three techniques. The effective diffusivity values were obtained in
the range of 10-9- 10-10 m2/sec.

Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by VIT University, Vellore,
India under the VIT-SMBS research grant scheme (2040/VP-A-31082012) for
conducting the initial experiments. The authors would like to thank Prof. G. S.
Nirmala and Prof. Mahesh Ganesapillai for their guidance, support and valuable
inputs during the project.

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