Mathematical modeling of uvaia byproduct drying and evaluation of quality parameters

Uvaia (Eugenia pyriformis) frozen pulp processing generates a solid byproduct that can potentially contain important components of human nutrition. In this study, the drying of uvaia byproduct was studied. Two different drying treatments were tested: drying of wet waste and drying of waste with prior removal of water by centrifugation. Three drying temperatures were used: 40, 60, and 80 °C. Eight models were applied to fit the drying curves: Page, Lewis, Modified Page, Logarithmic, Midilli, Wang and Singh, Henderson and Pabis, and Weibull. Midilli presented an excellent fit to the curves. The effective moisture diffusivity of the uvaia byproduct ranged between 8.52 × 10^-10 and 3.22 × 10^-9 m²/s. The activation energy was 25.65 and 24.97 kJ/mol for non-centrifuged and centrifuged assays, respectively. The dried byproducts had a reduction of 3-21% of the total phenolic content against the control. The assay performed at 40 °C with centrifugation presented the lowest total color difference value.