The aim of this research was to determine the effect of drying conditions (drying air temperature and drying time) on drying rate, effective diffusivity, and activation energy during hot-air drying of jujube slices. Jujube slices were dried in a laboratory scale convective hot-air dryer at an air temperature in a range of 50-70℃ with an air flow of 0.66 m/s. Sliced jujubes did not exhibit a constant-rate drying period and all the drying operations are seen to occur in the falling rate period. At the beginning of drying process, drying rate was very high, and drying rate continued to decrease as moisture content approached to equilibrium moisture content. It is apparent that drying rate decreases continuously with decreasing moisture content or increasing drying time. It is also noted that the drying rate increased with the increase in drying air temperature. The drying rate was more for jujube slices dried at higher temperature than the ones dried at lower temperature for the same average moisture content of the sample. Consequently, the drying time decreased at a higher drying air temperature condition. Moisture transfer from jujube slices was described by applying the Fick's diffusion model and the effective diffusivity changed between 1.354×10-10 and 2.787×10-10 m2/s within the given temperature range. Effective diffusivity increased linearly with increasing temperature. An Arrhenius relation with activation energy values of 33.22 kJ/mol for jujube slices by hot-air drying expressed the effect of temperature on the diffusivity.

• Jun Ho Lee(Department of Food Engineering, Daegu University)