Osmotic dehydration of peas: I. Influence of process variables on mass transfer

Osmotic dehydration of uniformly sized peas at 30C was studied using different solutions of sucrose, sodium citrate and sucrose+citrate mixture. The influence of various factors such as solution concentration and composition and the effect of agitation on the mass transfer mechanism was investigated. It was shown that the rate of water loss in the sample was increased by increasing concentration of osmosis solution and agitation. The most effective osmotic dehydration was obtained in sucrose+citrate mixed solutions of 60% total solids level for which a dehydration model was proposed. The apparent diffusion coefficient of water Da, was determined using the dehydration model. The values of Da were found to be in the range 9.10 × 10-11 - 7.63 × 10-10 m2/s