Microwave Vacuum Drying Characteristics and Kinetic Model of Cooked Sweet Potato Chips

We addressed the microwave vacuum drying of cooked sweet-potato chips.The influence of the microwave power density and pressure on the moisture evaporation-rate was investigated.The results show that the microwave power density and pressure had a major impact.To be specific,as the power density increased,the drying time decreased because of the increasing moisture evaporation-rate;as the pressure decreased to below 60 kPa,the evaporation rate changed in an increase-constant mode.The microwave vacuum drying outperforms the conventional hot-air and microwave drying because of higher efficiency,lower energy consumption,more uniform heating and less contamination.Moreover,Page model was found to well describes the dynamic behavior of the microwave vacuum drying of cooked sweet-potato chips.We suggest that the results may be of some technological interest in drying cooked sweet potato chips on industrial scale.