Determination of thermophysical properties of cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum) dry almonds

• Autor(a) principal: Cunha, Elisa Santana
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Lima, Geovana Pires Araújo, Sales, Jorge Henrique Oliveira, Oliveira, Elizama Aguiar de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: The Journal of Engineering and Exact Sciences
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufv.br/jcec/article/view/11955
• topic: Fick’s model; Fourier's law; Cooling curve; Drying curve; Weibull's model; Curva de resfriamento; Curva de secagem; Lei de Fourrier; Modelo de Fick; Modelo de Wiebull

In comparison to cocoa, little has been reported on the drying of cupuassu almonds that can be used to produce cupulate, a chocolate type product. Thus, in this study thermophysical properties of cupuassu dry almonds (moisture = 9.68 % d.b.) were determined as: thermal conductivity (k) of 0.14 kW/(m.K), specific heat (cp) of 2.86 kJ/(kg.K), thermal diffusivity (?) of 4.8·10-5 m²/s, effective diffusivity (Deff) of 9.94·10-10 - 6.29·10-10 m²/s and activation energy (Ea) of 14.90 kJ/mol. These results showed a similarity of values between cupuassu and cocoa and allows to perform more specific studies for the development of dryers for the cupuassu almonds.