Turmeric is a common spice in daily life. Several valuable chemical compounds such as curcumin and demethoxycurcumin can be extracted from the turmeric rhizome. These ingredients are well known for extremely effective anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Historically, the drying process has been used to prolongate the storage time and to eliminate the impact of fungus and insects. In this work, a microwave-assisted heat pump dryer was designed and fabricated for turmeric slices. The drying process was performed with drying temperatures varying in the range 35°C to 45°C. The microwave power was set at 1.5W/gram. The microwave-assisted drying kinetic of turmeric slices was analyzed and compared with the standard heat pump drying process. It was obtained that the microwave power accelerated the drying process by increasing the effective moisture diffusivity of turmeric slices from 3.3 times to 3.6 times. Furthermore, the Midilli et al. [12] model can be accurately used to describe the drying kinetic of turmeric slices for both conventional and microwave-assisted heat pump drying processes.

turmeric, heat pump drying process, microwave-assisted drying process, drying kinetic, moisture diffusivity.

Received: September 6, 2022; Revised: October 17, 2022; Accepted: October 21, 2022; Published: December 15, 2022

How to cite this article: Duc Nam Nguyen, Thi Viet Linh Nguyen, Viet Dung Nguyen and Kieu Hiep Le, Experimental study of microwave-assisted heat pump drying process of turmeric slices, JP Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 30 (2022), 19-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.17654/0973576322053

This Open Access Article is Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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