Journal of Food Engineering19 ( 1993) 303-310

Research Note

The Influence of Moisture Content and Temperature on

the Specific Heat of Potato Measured by Differential
Scanning Calorimetry

N. Wang & J. G. Brennan

Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Reading, Whiteknights,

Reading RG6 2AP, UK

(Received 10 January 1992; revised version received and accepted 23 April 1992)

ABSTRACT

Differential Scanning Calorimetry was used to determine the specific heat

of potato. The effects of temperature and moisture content on specific heat
were investigated. Specific heat increased quadratically with moisture
content over the range O-413 (g water/g solid) and linearly with tempera-
ture varying from 40 to 70°C. A model was proposed to describe the effects
of moisture content and temperature on the specific heat of potato. Good
agreement was found between specific heat values determined experi-
mentally and predicted by the model.

INTRODUCTION

Thermal properties of biological materials are useful not only for quanti-
fying thermal processes, but also for designing processing systems. One
of the important thermal parameters of a material is its specific heat.
Since water is one of the major constituents of biological materials, a
knowledge of the influence of moisture content on specific heat would
contribute extensively to analysis of thermal processes. Moisture content
in agricultural products has a profound effect on the specific heat due to
the relatively high specific heat of water and heat of sorption. Specific
heat is often expressed as a function of moisture content using linear
relationships (Mohsenin, 1980).
303
Journal of Food Engineering 0260-8774/93/$06.00 - Q 1993 Elsevier Science
Publishers Ltd, England. Printed in Great Britain
304 N. Wang,J. G. Brennun

Temperature also has an effect on the specific heat of organic material.

Muir and Viravanichai (1972) observed that the specific heat of wheat
increased almost linearly with temperatures of -30 to 20°C for a seed
with moisture content up to 20% (wet basis). Zanoni and Petronio ( 199 1)
related the specific heat of bread to temperature in linear and quadratic
functions. Dutta er al. ( 1988) observed similar relationships.
The technique of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is rapid,
direct, dynamic and requires milligramme amounts of sample. The
dynamic feature of DSC allows the determination of specific heat as a
function of temperature. In DSC, the sample material is subjected to a
linear temperature programme, and the heat flow rate into the sample is
continuously measured; this heat flow rate is proportional to the instan-
taneous specific heat of the sample.
McMilIin (1969) and Koch (1969) employed DSC to determine the
specific heat of wood and dry tree bark, respectively. In both cases, the
specific heats were observed to increase with temperature. Chakrabarti
and Johnson (1972) used DSC and observed an increase in the specific
heat of tobacco of up to 16% with an increase in temperature from 40 to
70°C. Using DSC, Murata et al. (1987) determined the specific heat of
eight cereal grains over a temperature range of 10 to 70°C and a mois-
ture content range of 0% to 35% (wet basis). The specific heat related
linearly to moisture content and quadratically to temperature. Tang et al.
(199 1) investigated the specific heat of lentil seeds by DSC.
The objectives of this investigation were to determine the specific heat
of potato as a function of moisture content and temperature in the range
of 40 to 70°C using the DSC technique.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials

Fresh Desiree potatoes were purchased from a local market and kept in a
cold room at 10°C for about 2 weeks prior to their use. To obtain
samples with a range of moisture contents, potato slices (with a thickness
of 10 mm) were dried for various times in an experimental hot-air drier
at air temperatures of 55°C. The partly-dried samples were sealed in
polyethylene film and stored at constant temperature for 24 h to ensure a
uniform moisture content throughout the sample. Moisture content of
sample was determined by drying at 70°C under vacuum for 24 h.
 Measuring the specific heat ofpotato using DSC 305

Experimental procedure

The following equation (Mohsenin, 1980) was used in this work to cal-
culate the specific heat of potato at different temperatures and moisture
contents:

where Cr, d and m are the specific heat of the material (Cal/g “C), the
deflection from the base line and the mass of the materials, respectively.
Ck, d’ and m’ are the corresponding values for the reference material
(sapphire).
Measurements of specific heat were carried out using a Perk&Elmer
DSC-2C. To establish a base line, the programme was carried out with
no sample present. Weighted empty aluminium sample pans were placed
in both sample and reference holders and scanned at a programmed
heating rate of lOYJ/min over the selected temperature interval
(40-70°C). Isothermally, the base line indicates the differential losses of
the two sample holders at the initial temperature (O’Neill, 1966).
At the beginning and end of each programme there is a characteristic
transient behaviour of the base line, associated with the distributed ther-
mal capacity of the sample holders. In order to give the initial transient
behaviour time to disappear, the temperature programme was started at
35°C. The analysis time was approximately 8 min, including isothermal
recording at the initial and final temperature.
The procedure was repeated with a known weight of sapphire stan-
dard and weighed (8-10 mg) samples of potato, respectively. The no-
sample run provided the base line from which deflection, d and d’, due to
heat capacities of sapphire and sample, were measured. Figure 1 shows a
typical specific heat thermogram of potato at a 1oOC/min scanning rate.
Three samples for each moisture content were repeated. Due to the
presence of moisture, volatile sample pans were used. A volatile pan
sealer was used to seal the sample pan to prevent moisture losses occurr-
ing during heating. After completing each run the sample pan was
removed and reweighed to check that there was no loss of sample weight
during the run. In order to determine an estimation of the experimental
error in using this technique, the measured specific heat of distilled water
over the desired range of temperature was compared with the true
values. The experimental values were within 6% of the true specific heat
values of distilled water.
306 N. Wang,J. G. Brennan

10.0

Baseline
I 1 I I I , I I I 1 I I I , -_
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0
The (minutes)
I 1 1 I I 1
35 40 50 60 70 75

Fig. 1. Typical specific heat thermogram of potato (6.7%, dry basis %), scanning rate
10”C/min, range 5.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Effects of temperature and moisture content

Figure 2 shows the effect of temperature on the specific heat of potato.

The points shown in this figure are average values from three samples. In
general, the specific heat increased almost linearly with temperature, but
the effect was small in the temperature range studied. A similar trend was
observed by Tang et al. (1991) for lentil seeds and Chakrabarti and
Johnson (1972) for tobacco.
Figure 3 represents the specific heat of potato as a function of mois-
ture content. The specific heat of potato also increased with moisture
content but not linearly. The increase of specific heat at low moisture
content was more rapid than that at higher moisture contents. This may
be due to the solid-water interaction at low moisture content. This has
been studied by NMR technique (Wang & Brennan, 1992).
The specific heat of raw potato was reported as 0.87 Cal/g “C (80%
wet basis). No data on the specific heat of potato at different moisture
contents could be found. Specific heat data for other vegetables and
 Measuring the specific heat of potato using DSC 307

0.9 l ; - 4.130 Q water/g solid)

1.925 (g w&r/g solid)

0.739 (8 water/g solid)

0.017 (B water/g solid)

0.41 . 1 . 1 . u . I . 1
30 40 50 60 70 80
Temperanue 0
Fig. 2. Effect of temperature on the specific heat of potato.

1.0

0.8

0.2 I . I - , . I - 1

0 20 40 60 80 100
Moisture content (% wet basis)
Fig. 3. Effect of moisture content on the specific heat of potato.

fruits in the moisture content range 92-12% (wet basis) fell within the
range 0.99-0.44 Cal/g “C (Mohsenin, 1980). The values of the specific
heat of potato determined in this work fall within a similar range.

Empirical model

Siebel ( 1892) proposed that the specific heat of food materials can be
taken equal to the sum of the specific heat of water and that of the solid
308 N. Wang,J. G. Brennan

matter in combination with water. Based on his assumptions, Siebel

proposed the following equation:
c, = 0*008 w+ 0.20 (2)
where W is the water content of the material in per cent basis.
The experimental data were fitted to the Siebel’s equation. It was
found that the experimental values were higher than the calculated
values obtained from eqn (2), as shown in Fig. 3. The reason for this
variation may be the presence of bound water, which has a higher spe-
cific heat than free water (Freeman, 1943). Siebel neglected the effect of
bound water. Also, the temperature effect was not taken into account in
the Siebel’s equation. Therefore, an empirical equation was not deve-
loped by multiple regression to describe the effect of temperature and
moisture content on the specific heat of potato. The regression model for
specific heat as a function of temperature and moisture content was
proposed as follows:
C, = a+ bT+ CM+ dM2 (3)
where C, is the specific heat (Cal/g “C), T is the temperature (“C), M is
the moisture content (g water/g solid) and a, b, c, d are the constants. A
nonlinear regression procedure (SAS, 1985) was used to estimate the
constants in eqn (3). Thus, eqn (3) can be written as:

C, = 0.406 + 0.00146 T+ O,203M- 0.0249M2 (4)

The main relative percentage deviation, E, was also calculated, which
equals 3.36%. It is believed that E values below 10% indicate a reason-
ably good fit for practical purposes (Boquet et al., 1978; Lomauro et al.,
1985).
Figure 4 shows one of the examples of the comparison between expe-
rimental and predicted values using eqn (4).

CONCLUSIONS

The specific heat of potato varied linearly with temperature and quadrat-
ically with moisture content. An empirical model was developed to
describe the effects of temperature and moisture content. This model
may be used as a component in a drying model to simulate the drying
process in future work.
 Measuring the specific heat of potato using DSC 309

1.0 -

0 2 3 4 5
Ikisture content (g water/g solid)
Fig. 4. Comparison between experimental and predicted values of the specific heat of
potato at 50°C.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to the Polymer Group of Physical Department,

University of Reading, for permission to use the differential scanning
calorimeter.

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