drying

70°C and microwave power levels of 385, 540 and 700 W while untreated samples were sun dried. The effects of drying on selected properties of cocoyam were studied. The drying time generally reduced with increase in drying temperature and power level used. The use of SM pretreatment resulted in lower drying times compared with WB pretreatment. Effective moisture diffusivity values (Deff) for all the drying conditions varied from 5.27×10-8 to 2.07×10-6 m2/s and SM samples had higher values than WB samples. Activation energy values for oven drying were 37.41 kJ/mol and 61.79 kJ/mol and that for microwave drying were 38.59 and 41.91 W/g for SM and WB samples respectively. The energy consumption varied from 30 to 50 kWh for oven drying and 308 to 396.7 Wh for microwave drying while that of specific energy requirement varied from 86.2 to 106.5 kWh/kg and 1.49 to 2.03 kJ/kg water for oven drying and microwave drying respectively