Browsing by Author "Castro Núñez, Eduardo Israel"

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    Determinación experimental de isotermas de sorción de humedad de la tuna blanca (Napolea coccinellifera L.)
    (Universidad Técnica de Ambato. Facultad de Ciencia e Ingeniería en Alimentos y Biotecnología. Carrera de Ingeniería en Alimentos, 2022-09) Castro Núñez, Eduardo Israel; Sosa Cárdenas, Julio César
    In the food industry, the determination of adsorption isotherms is the most appropriate way to study the influence that water has on food; white prickly pear (Napolea coccinellifera L.) is a product that is little exploited in Ecuador, being the drying process its best alternative. The present work was carried out in order to establish the ideal conditions for the drying process, by means of the construction of adsorption isotherms at different temperatures. Therefore, the water activity was correlated with the equilibrium humidity, obtained by the gravimetric method of saturated salt solutions at different relative humidities, which were exposed to constant temperatures of 25, 30 and 40 degrees Celsius. Experimental data showed that the equilibrium humidity was directly proportional to the water activity, and inversely proportional to the temperature increase. Parameters obtained based on the mathematical models: GAB, BET, Oswin and Halsey, were determined to evaluate the best fit of data; of which, Oswin and Halsey presented better coefficients of determination higher than 92 and 93 per cent. The heat of adsorption decreased from 31.515 to -1.668 𝑘𝐽 per 𝑚𝑜𝑙, as the equilibrium moisture content increased. While, the activation energy presented a value in the monolayer of 33.164 𝑘𝐽 per 𝑚𝑜𝑙 from 25 to 40 degrees Celsius, thus, demonstrating that both had temperature dependence and strong interaction of water with the feed surface.