ABSTRACT
The palm kernel, being the edible seed derived from the oil palm fruit through the palm oil milling procedure, necessitates a reduction in moisture content to an optimal level through drying for effective processing and storage. This study focused on the mathematical modelling of the drying kinetics of Palm kernel (Dura Species) at harvest moisture content. The palm kernel (Dura Species) was dried at four different temperatures 40OC, 50OC, 60OC, and 70OC in a laboratory conventional oven. The reduction in moisture content of the seeds was methodically documented, transformed into moisture ratio, and applied to five semi-theoretical drying mathematical models: Lewis, Page, Avhad and Marchetti, Logarithmic, and Henderson and Pabis models. The adequacy of these models was assessed by evaluating the coefficient of determination (R2 ), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean square error (MSE). It was observed that an elevation in air temperature led to a decrease in the drying time of the palm kernel (Dura Species). Among the models examined, the Avhad and Marchetti model exhibited the closest match to the experimental data, with R2 values ranging from 0.9787, 0.9817, 0.9834, and 0.9944 and root mean square error (RMSE) values ranging from 0.0406, 0.0459, 0.0525, and 0.0383, and mean square error (MSE) 0.0016, 0.0021, 0.0027, and 0.0014 across all temperature ranges (40OC, 50OC, 60OC and 70OC) for the palm kernel respectively. Particularly, at a drying temperature of 70°C, the Avhad and Marchetti model demonstrated superior fitting to the experimental data, yielding an R2 value of 0.9944 for the palm kernel (Dura Species). The activation energy value of 32.59 kJ mol-1 was obtained for the Avhad and Marchetti model of the Palm kernel (Dura Species) for the thin layer drying models.
