Conservation of Moroccan truffle (Terfezia boudieri) using solar drying method

This work aims to investigate the drying behavior of Terfezia Boudieri truffle in a thin layer convective solar dryer. In this work, different variables were taken into account. The slice thickness was 3, 6, 8 and 10 mm, the drying temperatures were 50, 60, 70 and 80 °C and air flow rates were 0.0416 and 0.0833 m3/s. The experimental data were analyzed in order to determine the drying kinetics. The drying curves were described by different empirical and physical drying models in thin layer. According to the results Midilli-Kucuk model was found to be the most suitable for fitting the drying curves of Moroccan truffle with a correlation coefficient (r) equal to 0.9981, chi square (χ2) of 4.044 × 10−3 and mean bias error (P) of 1.4074%. Midilli-Kucuk parameters were correlated to the drying air temperature. The diffusivity coefficient was also determined. This coefficients varied in the range of 7.9705 × 10−10 and 1.3720 × 10−9 m2/s. The activation energy was also calculated, according to Arrhenius equation, and was achieved 76.37 kJ/mol.