Experimental Study and Mathematical Modeling on Thin Layer Microwave Drying of Zucchini (C. pepo) Slices

In this study, drying behavior of zucchini (C. pepo) that is a species of Cucurbitaceae family was investigated in microwave oven. Zucchini slices with 3, 6 and 8 mm thick were dried at different microwave output powers (90, 180, 360, 600 W at 2450 MHz frequency) by using domestic microwave oven and monitored pairs of drying time and zucchini mass. It was observed that drying rate of zucchini slices increased with increasing of the microwave output power. On the other hand the drying time for the final moisture contents of zucchini slices increased with increasing of the thick of them. Ten thin layer drying models, available in the literature, were used to evaluate the experimental data. It was observed that Weibull Distribution and Midilli et al. models among the models used are the best mathematical models represented the microwave drying behavior of zucchini slices.