Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Modelling of heat and mass transfer during (osmo)

dehydrofreezing of fruits
M.E. Agnelli *, C.M. Marani, R.H. Mascheroni
Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnologı́a de Alimentos, Universidad Nacional de la Plata (UNLP-CONICET),
47 y 116, 1900 La Plata, Argentina
MODIAL (Facultad de Ingenierı́a UNLP), La Plata, Argentina

Received 19 April 2004; accepted 16 August 2004

Abstract

Simulation of dehydrofreezing process is a difficult task as two processes are involved: a mass transfer of soluble solids and water
between the product and the osmotic solution and heat transfer during freezing. A model developed in a prior work for the dehy-
drating step, was linked with the heat transfer process involved during the freezing step. In this case, the heat transfer process was
modelled using the enthalpy formulation with a finite volume scheme. The results of the model were successfully confronted with
experimental data obtained on pear disks and apples cubes dehydrated using two osmotic syrups (sucrose and glucose solutions) and
followed by freezing in a conventional air-blast tunnel (air at
40
C). A good quantitative agreement was obtained between the
experimental and calculated results for the whole dehydrofreezing process, that is, the dehydration followed by freezing.
 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Osmotic dehydration; Dehydrofreezing; Fruits; Modelling

1. Introduction
During osmotic dehydration, the food product is in
contact with a low water activity solution (in most cases
concentrated salt and/or sugar solutions) and a two-way
mass transfer is established: (i) water is transferred from
the product to the solution, often accompanied by natu-
ral substances (sugars, vitamins, pigments, flavours) and
(ii) in the opposite direction, solute is transferred from
the solution to the vegetable or fruit pieces. As a conse-
quence of this exchange, the product loses weight and
shrinks. However, the dehydrated product is not yet
microbiologically stabilised. A subsequent treatment is
necessary for product long-term conservation. Several
treatments were proposed till now: freezing (Flink,
1975; Hawkes & Flink, 1978) and convective drying
*
Corresponding author. Fax: +54 221 4890741/4254853.
E-mail address: magnelli@volta.ing.unlp.edu.ar (M.E. Agnelli).
(Islam & Flink, 1982; Lenart & Lewicki, 1988; Ponting,
1973; Ponting, Walters, Forrey, Jackson, & Stanley,
1966) are the most typical.
Osmotic dehydration for partial drying of fruits and
vegetables followed by freezing (osmo-dehydrofreezing)
offers some of the advantages of both processes avoiding
many of the disadvantages of each, when they are used
separately. The main advantages are not only economi-
cal. Although savings in energy, packaging and distribu-
tion costs due to weight and size reduction of the
product are important, the dehydrofreezing process in-
duces quality improvements in the products as well
(Ponting, 1973; Ponting et al., 1966; Raoult-Wack,
1994; Vial et al., 1991).
Simulation of heat and mass transfer during dehydro-
freezing is a difficult task as two processes are involved:
mass transfer of solids and water between the product
and the osmotic solution and, later, heat transfer dur-
ing freezing. In this paper, a model developed for the

0260-8774/$ - see front matter  2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2004.08.034
416 M.E. Agnelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424

Nomenclature

Ai area of the extracellular volume in the i ui displacement rate of the solution relative to
volume the moving surface of the food volume

Brix soluble solids content of the sample V volume
Cj extracellular concentration of the species j Vc cellular volume
Cw water concentration Ve extracellular volume
fji transmembrane flux of the j species in the Vr volume reduction of the sample
volume i Wj concentration of the species j in the cellular
h enthalpy volume
H heat transfer coefficient WL (%) loss of water during the dehydrating process
k thermal conductivity referred to the water content of the fresh
kj mass transfer coefficient of the species j sample
L length or height WR (%) weight reduction of the sample before and
mf final mass of the dehydrated sample after treatment
mi initial mass of the fresh sample xg weight fraction of glucose or fructose
mij mass of the species j in the extracellular vol- xj weight fraction of the species j
ume i xs weight fraction of sucrose
mjc mass of the species j in the cellular volume
mje mass of the species j in the extracellular Greek symbols
volume Dzi integration step in the z-axis
nij extracellular flux of the species j in the vol- Dap0j apparent diffusion coefficient of the species j
ume i Dapij apparent diffusion coefficient of the species j
q heat flux in the volume i
Si area of the cellular membrane in the volume i / water content
SG (%) solids from the dehydrating solution entering c ice fraction
the sample referred to the solid content of the q product density
fresh sample li viscosity of the solution in volume i
t time l0j viscosity of the solution of the species j
T temperature with a water content equal to that of the
Tcrg freezing point of glucose or fructose with a mixture
water content equal to that of the mixture lm viscosity of the mixture
Tcrs freezing point of sucrose with a water content
equal to that of the mixture

dehydrating step in a prior work (Spiazzi & Mascheroni,
1997), was linked with the heat transfer process involved
during the freezing step. In this case, the heat transfer
process was modelled using the enthalpy formulation
with a finite-volume scheme. The results of the model
were successfully confirmed with experimental data ob-
tained on pear disks and apple cubes dehydrated using
two osmotic syrups (sucrose and glucose solutions)
and followed by freezing in a conventional air-blast tun-
nel (air at
40
C). A good quantitative agreement was
obtained between the experimental and calculated re-
sults for the whole process, that is, the dehydration fol-
lowed by freezing.
2. Experimental
Osmotic dehydration: Experiments of osmotic dehy-
dration were performed in a stainless steel vessel of
20 L of capacity. The vessel is provided with a coil
through which circulates an etilenglycol–water mixture
from a thermostat used to heat the osmotic solution.
The equipment (Fig. 1) is equipped with a stirrer to en-
sure homogeneous mixing of the solution over the whole
system.
Runs were made on pear disks of 2 cm diameter and
1 cm height, and on apple cubes of two sizes: 1.5 cm and
2 cm side. The samples were submerged in the dehydrat-
ing solution at 30
C for different immersion times. The
osmotic concentration agents were glucose (99.5%) and
sucrose (Commercial Grade). The concentrations of
the osmotic solutions are indicated in Table 1.
Once the immersion time was reached, the samples
were taken from the vessel, intermittently washed during
30 s with distilled water, blotted in absorbent paper and
finally weighed. The evolution of mass transfer was
measured through the variation in time of weight loss
(WR), total solids (TS) and soluble solids content
 M.E. Agnelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424 417


 
WR TS TS0
Solid gain: SG ¼ 1

 100
100 100 100
ð2Þ

V
Volume reduction: Vr ¼  100 ð3Þ
V0
where V is the actual volume and TS0 and V0 are the ini-
tial values of the solid content and volume, respectively.
Freezing: After the dehydration step, the sample was
frozen in a conventional air-blast tunnel (
40
C). The
progress of freezing was followed by the measurement
of temperature with a copper-constantan thermocouple
placed in the centre of the product.

3. Modelling of the process

3.1. Mathematical model

Fig. 1. Photograph of the osmotic dehydration equipment. (a) Vat; (b)
Recirculation system; (c) Chryostat; (d) Stirrer.
Water loss and solute gain during osmotic dehydra-
tion depend on operating conditions and cellular tissue
Table 1
structure as well as on the nature of the pre-treatment
Composition of the osmotic solutions (solute concentration and its molecular weight) and also
Solution Solute/water [wt]
Brix
of the size and shape of food pieces. Spiazzi and Masch-
eroni (1997) present a review on this subject.
Glucose 1/1 47
Sucrose 2/1 69
The model for osmotic dehydration presented in Spi-
azzi and Mascheroni (1997) accounts for the main mass
transfer paths in cellular tissues and for the influence
of product shape, size variation, chemical composition
(
Brix), and volume reduction (Vr). The determination of product and osmotic solution and their mass ratio
of these parameters was done in duplicate as follows: during the process. In order to evaluate the concentra-
Weight reduction (WR): was calculated from the tion profiles within the product involved in the osmotic
weight difference of the sample before and after the dehydration (water and sugars), the volume representing
treatment. the piece of fruit is divided in N concentric and equal
ðmi
mf Þ volume elements. In each volume, two phases can be
WRð%Þ ¼  100 distinguished: one corresponding to the cell plasma
mi
content––kept within the cellular membrane––and the
where mi: initial mass (fresh sample), mf: final mass other, formed by the intercellular space. As depicted in
(treated sample). Fig. 2, each volume of the intercellular space is subjected
Total solids (TS): determined in a vacuum stove at to a diffusive–convective flux from and to the adjacent
58
C during 72 h or up to reach a constant weight. volumes and a transmembrane diffusive flux from the


ms cell plasma. As a consequence of discretizing this way,
TSð%Þ ¼  100
m0 we also transform the bidimensional problem in a
monodimensional one and the grid is set up in a dimen-
where ms is the dried sample weight and m0 is the fresh sion normal to the surface.
sample weight. The mass balance for each species j in the extracellu-
Soluble solids content (
Brix): measured in an Abbe lar volume i can be written as:
refractometer (Bellinham + Stanley Limited).
From these values, we can evaluate the parameters to dmij Dmij iþ1
ffi ¼ niþ1
j A
nij Ai þ fji S i ð4Þ
follow the advance of dehydrating process: dt Dt


 where n denotes the extracellular flux, f the transmem-
TS0 TS
Water loss: WL ¼ 1

1
brane flux, A is the area of the extracellular volume
100 100

 and S the area of the cellular membrane. Eq. (4) was
WR
 1
 100 ð1Þ solved using an explicit scheme for a finite cylinder.
100 In this case, N was equal to 15 being the first (N = 1)
418 M.E. Agnelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424
L Water
Vi zi
Solutes
∆zi
Vi
Fig. 2. Scheme showing the different mass transfer mechanisms
considered in the mass balance for osmotic dehydration: water and
solute fluxes indicated by black and white arrows respectively.
located on the external surface and crescent from the
edge towards the centre. As boundary conditions it
was considered that the surface concentration of the
jth species correspond to its bulk value for the external
osmotic solution meanwhile its derivative at the centre
of the fruit piece is equal to zero.
The extracellular flux is calculated as:
ðC iþ1
j
C ij Þ ðC iþ1
j þ C ij Þ i
nij ¼ Dapij þ u
Dzi 2 less sensible to the abrupt variation of the thermal prop-
where Cj is the concentration of the species j in the extra-
cellular volume, ui is the relative displacement speed of
solution respect to food surface (due to volume
contraction).
The apparent diffusion coefficient is defined as:
Dap0j
Dapij ¼
li
with the viscosity l being a function of the composition
and concentration of the dehydrating solution.
The transmembrane flux is given by:
fj ¼ k j ðW ij
C ij Þ
where Wj is the concentration of the species j in the cel-
lular volume and kj a mass transfer coefficient.
The concentrations of the species j in the cell and
extracellular volume are expressed as:
mcj mje
Wj ¼ and C j ¼ ð8Þ
Vc Ve
where mcj and mje are the mass of the species j in the cell
and in the extracellular volume, respectively, and Vc and
Ve are the volumes of the cellular and extracellular solu-
tions, respectively, estimated as if they behave as ideal
solutions.
The solution of Eq. (4) leads to the concentration
profile of the each species inside the piece of fruit. At
the end of the dehydrating process, this outcome is sub-
sequently introduced to solve the heat transfer balance
developed for modelling the freezing process.
In this case, modelling of the freezing step was carried
out by means of a numerical method, which includes the
change of phase phenomena in the thermal balance
equations through the value of the enthalpy h. So, the
equations were solved in the whole system (the food
piece) as if it were constituted by a single phase. Thus,
the balance is transformed into a transient problem with
temperature dependent properties. The balance was
elaborated using the enthalpic method and the numeri-
cal model was developed using explicit finite-differences.
For this purpose, the thermal balance was written as:
oh ~ rT~ Þ
q ¼ rðk ð9Þ
ot
where q is the product density, k its thermal conductiv-
ity, h the product enthalpy (J/kg) and T, the temper-
ature.
This equation was solved with the enthalpy as the un-
known variable on a fixed grid. Consequently, the
knowledge of h allows the calculation of the value of
the temperature in each point of the grid from the func-
tionality of h with temperature. Then, the thermal con-
ductivity and the position of the freezing front can be
deduced. This formulation has the advantage of being
ð5Þ
erties during phase change than the most common tem-
perature formulation.
The thermal balance was solved using an explicit
scheme for a finite cylinder. The discretization of the
equation was carried out by the finite volume method
in such a way that thermal fluxes are conservative (Chau
& Gaffney, 1988; Tocci & Mascheroni, 1995).
ð6Þ The Fourier equation (9) was arranged in such a way
that the thermal flow in the bidimensional body takes a
monodimensional form by expressing one position vari-
able in terms of the other and assuming that the flow is
always normal to the surface. Then, the equation set is
given by:
ð7Þ
dhi Dhi
qi V i ffi qi V i ¼ qiþ1 Aiþ1
qi Ai ð10Þ
dt Dt
where A is the transfer area and q is the heat flux given
by:
ðT iþ1
T i Þ
qi ¼ k i ð11Þ
Dzi
where z is the position variable chosen to be an inde-
pendent variable and with the initial and boundary
conditions:
T ¼ T0 for t ¼ 0
1
H ðT 1
T s Þ ¼
k 1 ðT Dz
T1 s Þ for z ¼ L=2
where H is the heat transfer coefficient, T1 the temper-
ature of the cooling air and Ts the temperature of the
 M.E. Agnelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424 419

product surface. The values used in calculations were Table 4

H = 30 W/m2 K and T1 =
37
C. The number of grid- Constants for l0j evaluation
points and the crescent direction of N is the same used Species a b c
in the mass balance resolution. Glucose 8.28
19.85 11.60
The overall model allows us to predict the evolution Fructose 10.14
22.70 12.56
of temperature and solid and water concentration as a Sucrose 13.12
28.47 15.37
function of the processing time. The influence of differ-
ent process parameters is taken into account for dehy- resulting from the adjustment of data tabulated in
dration and freezing as well through the boundary and Weast (1975):
initial conditions.
l0j ¼ expðaC 2w þ bC w þ cÞ ð13Þ
3
with Cw = water concentration [kg/m ], a, b, and
4. Mass and heat transfer coefficients and physical c = constants presented in Table 4.
properties The functionality of h with temperature and solids
content, necessary for modelling the freezing process,
Initially, pears and apples are assumed to be com- was obtained from correlations found in the literature
posed of water, fructose and insoluble substances in (Succar & Hayakawa, 1983) and from experimental data
the proportions indicated in Table 2. found in Tocci, Spiazzi, and Mascheroni (1998). The
The specific volume is 1 · 10
3 m3/kg for water and freezing point depression of the mixture was estimated
0.6281 · 10
3 m3/kg for glucose, fructose and higher using the following equation:
molecular weight sugars. xg xs
The fraction of the extracelullar volume and the cell T cr ¼ T crg þ T crs ð14Þ
ð1
/Þ ð1
/Þ
diameter are assumed to be the same for apples and
pears, that is, 0.2 (Khan & Vincent, 1990; Marcellin & where xg is the weight fraction of glucose or fructose, xs
PhanPhuc, 1970) and 200 lm (Saurel, 1993), is the weight fraction of sucrose, Tcrg is the freezing
respectively. point of glucose or fructose with a water content equal
The mass transfer coefficients that best fitted our to that of the mixture, Tcrs is the freezing point of su-
experimental results are presented in Table 3. crose with a water content equal to that of the mixture,
The viscosity of the solutions was calculated from: / is the water content.
X xj The values of Tcrg and Tcrs were obtained from de Cin-
lm ¼ l0j ð12Þ dio, Correra, and Hoff (1995) and are listed in Table 5.
j
ð1
/Þ
Some enthalpy data for the freezing point Tcr of solu-
in which lm is the viscosity of the mixture, xj is the tions with different concentrations of the solutes involved
weight fraction of the species j, / is the water content in the osmotic dehydration are also shown in this table.
and l0j is the viscosity of the solution of the species j with The ice fraction (c) was evaluated from the enthalpic
a water content equal to that of the mixture. The values balance established by Chang and Tao (1981).
of l0j were evaluated by means of the following equation The conductivity and density of the mixtures were
obtained from the following equations (Choi & Okos,
1986), in which the contributions of water, ice and solu-
ble solids were considered:
Table 2
Composition of the fresh pears and apples k ¼ ðck c þ ð1
/cÞk w Þ/ þ ð1
/Þk s ð15Þ
Product Solution Water x Fructose x Insolubles x
[wt] [wt] [wt] 1
q¼  ð16Þ
Pear Sucrose 0.858 ± 0.02 0.136 ± 0.02 0.006 ± 0.005 c ð1
cÞ ð1
/Þ
þ /þ
Glucose 0.875 ± 0.02 0.114 ± 0.02 0.011 ± 0.005 qc qw qs
Apple Both 0.875 ± 0.02 0.114 ± 0.02 0.011 ± 0.005
where the indexes w indicate water and s soluble solids.

Table 5
Table 3
Values of the freezing point and enthalpy of solutions for different
Values of mass transfer and apparent diffusivity coefficients for apple
solute concentration
and pear dehydration
x [wt] Glucose or fructose Sucrose
Species Water Glucose Fructose Sucrose
Tcr (
C) Hcr (kJ/kg) Tcr (
C) Hcr (kJ/kg)
Apple kj · 109 (m/s) 200 0 1 0
Dapj  109 (m2/s) 2.250 0.195 0.195 0.140 0.15
1.6 319
1.0 337
Pear kj · 109 (m/s) 200 0 1 0 0.30
5.0 216
2.7 255
Dapj  109 (m2/s) 1.250 0.150 0.150 0.1 0.45
10.7 114
5.6 175
420 M.E. Agnelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424

Table 6 must be remarked that the z-axis is normalized with the

Values of thermal conductivity (k) and density (q) for each contribu- decreasing value of the half height at each dehydrating
tion to the mixture
time (z0). From this figure it can be seen that the pene-
k (W/m2
C) q (kg/m3) with T in (
C) tration of sucrose is not significant towards the center
Solids (s) 0.16 1599
0.31046T of the disk. So, the increase in the fructose concentration
Water (w) 0.58 997.18 + 0.0031439T
0.0037574T2 is only due to the volume reduction originating from the
Ice (c) 2.20 916.89
0.13071T
dehydration process.
Fig. 3(b), analogously to Fig. 3(a), shows the concen-
The values of k and q for each contribution are pre- tration profile of glucose and fructose when the pear
sented in Table 6. disks are treated under glucose solution. Comparing it
with the previous figure, we can verify that the glucose
penetration is higher than that of sucrose even though
5. Results and discussion sucrose concentration in the solution is higher than that
of glucose. Consequently, the enhancement in fructose
5.1. Pear concentration is less significant due to the addition of
new solutes. Nevertheless, it must be remarked that
The concentration profiles obtained from the resolu- the enhancement in concentration is also a consequence
tion of the mass balance for each species during the of the volume reduction which happens to be more
dehydration process with sucrose and glucose solutions important than in the case of sucrose (8% higher, Figs.
are shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively. 4 and 5).
Fig. 3(a) presents the predicted concentration profiles The best parameters of the dehydrating process that
of sucrose and fructose in the pear disk at different times fit the WL evolution are presented in Table 3. The exper-
of treatment (4, 12 and 24 h) with the sucrose solution. It imental and calculated results from the dehydrating
experiments using sucrose and glucose as osmotic

0.7
(a)
0.6

0.5 60

0.4
WL or SG (%)
X (wt)

40
0.3 24h
0h
0.2 12h 4h
20
0.1 24h 4h
12h
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25
z/z°
time (h)
0.7
(b) 100
0.6

0.5 80
°Brix or Vr (%)

0.4
60
X (wt)

24h
0.3
12h 40
24h 4h
0.2 12h 0h
4h
0.1 20

0.0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 5 10 15 20 25
z/z° time (h)

Fig. 3. (a) Concentration profiles of sucrose and fructose (in grey) as a Fig. 4. Experimental and calculated evolution of the water loss (WL),
function of the dehydrating time under a sucrose solution. (b) solid gain (SG), volume reduction (Vr) and soluble solid content
Concentration profiles of glucose and fructose (in grey) as a function (
Brix) of pear disks with the dehydrating time under a sucrose
of the dehydrating time under a glucose solution. solution. SG and Vr in grey.
 M.E. Agnelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424 421

30
60

20
WL or SG (%)

40

10
20

T (°C)
0 0h
0 5 10 15 20 25 4h
time (h) -10 12h

100
-20 24h
80
°Brix or Vr (%)

60 -30

40
-40
0 200 400 600 800 1000
20 time (s)

0 Fig. 7. Experimental (symbols) and calculated (full lines) evolution of

0 5 10 15 20 25 temperature profiles during freezing of pear disks samples previously
time (h) dehydrated for different times (0, 4, 12 and 24 h) under a glucose
solution. The + symbol indicates the air temperature in the tunnel
Fig. 5. Experimental and calculated evolution of the water loss (WL), evolution considered constant for calculations.
solid gain (SG), volume reduction (Vr) and soluble solid content
(
Brix) of pear disks with the dehydrating time under a glucose 0.7
solution. SG and Vr in grey. (a)
0.6

0.5
30
0.4
X (wt)

24h
24h 0h
0.3 12h
20
0.2 12h
4h
10 0.1
4h 0h
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0 z/z°
T (°C)

0h
0.7
(b)
-10 4h
12h 0.6
24h
0.5
-20
0.4 0h
X (wt)

24h
0.3
-30 24h
12h
0.2
12h 4h
-40 0.1 0h
0 200 400 600 800 1000
4h
time (s) 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Fig. 6. Experimental (symbols) and calculated (full lines) evolution of z/z°
temperature profiles during freezing of pear disks samples previously
dehydrated for different times (0, 4, 12 and 24 h) under a sucrose Fig. 8. Concentration profiles of sucrose and fructose (in grey) as a
solution. The + symbol indicates the air temperature in the tunnel function of the dehydrating time under a sucrose solution obtained for
evolution considered constant for calculations. apple cubes of (a) 1.5 cm side, (b) 2.0 cm side.
422 M.E. Agnelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424

0.7 100
(a) (a)
0.6
80
0.5

WL or SG (%)
0.4 60
X (wt)

24h
0.3 12h 0h
24h 4h 40
0.2 12h 4h
20
0.1
0h
0.0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 5 10 15 20 25
z/z° time (h)

0.7 100
(b) (b)
0.6
80
0.5

Brix or SG (%)
0.4 60
X (wt)

24h
0.3
0h 40
24h 12h
0.2 4h
12 20
0.1 0h
h 4h
0.0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 5 10 15 20 25
z/z° time (h)

Fig. 9. Concentration profiles of glucose and fructose (in grey)
obtained for apple cubes as a function of the dehydrating time under
a glucose solution of (a) 1.5 cm side and (b) 2.0 cm side.
Fig. 10. Calculated and experimental evolution of (a) water loss (WL),
solid gain (SG), and (b) volume reduction (Vr) and soluble solid
content (
Brix) for samples of 1.5 cm (full line and void symbols) and
2 cm (dotted line and black symbols) with the dehydrating time under
sucrose solution.

solutions are shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The model predicts
very well the water loss, solid gain and soluble solid con-
tent in both cases. On the other hand, the calculated vol-
ume reduction with processing time is less accurate,
particularly in the case of glucose solution. However,
it is worth remarking that the measurement of this var-
iable is difficult because of the shape deformation
accompanying the volume reduction.
The outcome of the solution of the mass balance was
then introduced to predict the temperature profile that
occurs during freezing. Fig. 6 presents the results ob-
tained for samples previously dehydrated for different
times in a solution of sucrose. The experimental temper-
ature profiles are also shown in the figure. As can be
seen the model can predict quite precisely the thermal
evolution during freezing.
Fig. 7 shows the calculated and experimental results
obtained during freezing of the samples dehydrated
using glucose as the osmotic dehydrating agent. In this
case, the model prediction is less accurate than in the
preceding situation. Particularly, the 12 h and 24 h tem-
perature histories are less accurate, probably due to a
shift in the position of the thermocouple.
5.2. Apple
The solutions of the mass balance for each species for
the dehydration process of apple cubes of 1.5 and 2 cm
side with sucrose syrup are shown in Fig. 8(a) and (b),
respectively These figures present the predicted concen-
tration profiles of sucrose and fructose in the apple cube
at different times of treatment (4, 12 and 24 h). As be-
fore, the z-axis is normalized with the decreasing value
of the half height at each dehydrating time (z0). Com-
paring (a) and (b), it can be seen that the size of the sam-
ple affects the concentration profile, meaning that the
control step of the mass transfer is the diffusion step. Be-
sides, in both cases, it can be seen that the penetration of
sucrose is not very significant towards the center of the
cube. Then, the increase in fructose concentration is
due to the volume contraction originating from the
dehydration process.
Analogously to Fig. 8, Fig. 9(a) and (b) show the con-
centration profiles for each species when the dehydration
process is performed using a glucose solution. Both pic-
tures indicate, in this case, that the glucose penetration
is higher than that of sucrose. As a consequence, the
 M.E. Agnelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424 423

100 freezing. Similar results were obtained for samples of

(a) 2 cm side.
80
WL or SG (%)

60
40

40
30

20
20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 10
time (h)

T (°C)
0
100
(b)
-10 0h
80
12h 4h
24h
Brix or SG (%)

-20
60

-30
40

-40
20
0 200 400 600 800 1000
time (s)
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 Fig. 12. Calculated (full lines) and experimental (symbols) tempera-
time (h) ture profiles during freezing of previously dehydrated samples
(L = 1.5 cm) for different times (0, 4, 12 and 24 h) under sucrose
Fig. 11. Calculated and experimental evolution of (a) water loss (WL), solution. The + symbol indicates the air temperature in the tunnel
solid gain (SG), and (b) volume reduction (Vr) and soluble solid evolution considered constant for calculations.
content (
Brix) for samples of 1.5 cm (full line and void symbols) and
2 cm (dotted line and black symbols) with the dehydrating time under
glucose solution.
40

enhancement in fructose concentration is less significant 30

than in the preceding situation.
The experimental and calculated results from the
20
dehydration runs on apple cubes of 1.5 cm and 2 cm side,
using sucrose and glucose as osmotic solutions are
10
shown in Figs. 10 and 11. The model predicts very well
the water loss, solid gain and soluble solid content in all
T (°C)

0
cases. As stated before, the calculated volume reduction
with the processing time is less accurate, principally in 0h

case of glucose. However, this lack of accuracy is not -10

4h
important as regards the liability of the model due to
12h
the fact that the shape deformation that accompanies -20 24h
the volume reduction make this variable difficult to
measure. -30
The outcome of the solution of the mass balance
when introduced to predict the temperature profile leads -40
to Figs. 12 and 13. They present the results of the predic- 0 200 400 600 800 1000
tion of thermal histories for the previously dehydrated time (s)
samples of 1.5 cm side dehydrated for different times in
solutions of sucrose and glucose, respectively. The Fig. 13. Calculated (full lines) and experimental (symbols) tempera-
ture profiles during freezing of previously dehydrated samples
experimental temperature profiles are also shown in (L = 1.5 cm) for different times (0, 4, 12 and 24 h) under glucose
the figures. As can be seen, the model can predict, in solution. The + symbol indicates the air temperature in the tunnel
both cases, quite precisely the thermal evolution during evolution considered constant for calculations.
424 M.E. Agnelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 69 (2005) 415–424
6. Conclusions
In this work, the osmotic dehydration model devel-
oped by Spiazzi and Mascheroni for foods with high
water content was tested against new data including dif-
ferent food shapes and sizes. The agreement between
experimental and predicted data was very good in all
cases for all the dehydration variables except for the vol-
ume reduction, which could not be properly measured
during these set of experiments.
The results of the dehydration model were then intro-
duced into the thermal balance to predict the temperature
thermal history during freezing of the fresh and dehy-
drated samples. Thermal properties were expressed as a
function of the water and solid contents. The simulation
of the dehydrofreezing process presented in this work was
successfully validated with experimental results obtained
on pear disks and apple cubes of different sizes.
Thus, the model allows us to adequately predict the
concentration of solids and temperature profiles within
the fruit, the freezing time and the dehydrating para-
meters.
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