Research Journal of Chemical Sciences ______________________________________________ ISSN 2231-606X

Vol. 2(4), 57-60, April (2012) Res.J.Chem.Sci.

International Science Congress Association 57
Short Communication
Microwave Drying of Onion Slices

Kalse S.B., Patil M.M. and Jain S.K.

Dept. of Processing and food Eng., College of Tech. and Eng., Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, INDIA

Available online at: www.isca.in
(Received 8
th
October 2011, revised 6
th
January 2012, accepted 27
th
January 2012)
Abstract
White onion slices were dried using microwave drying technique. The effect of process parameters during microwave
dehydration such as effect of various power levels (0.25, 1.00, 1.50 and 2.25 kW) on mass reduction, water loss and diffusivity
were studied. It was found that the mass reduction and water loss increased with increase of power level. The moisture
diffusivity varied in the range of 6.491 10
-09
to 6.491 10
-08
m/s. The drying times of onions slices by microwave drying at
0.25, 1.00, 1.50 and 2.25 kW level were 15.86, 6.78, 5.3 and 3.2 hrs. Quality of dried product in respect to colour, rehydration
and water activity was superior.

Keywords: Microwave drying, colour value, Onion dehydration.


Introduction
India (21%) and China (19.3%) is the largest producer of onion
(Allium cepa L.) by area as well as by total production. Onions
compared with other fresh vegetable are relatively high in food
energy, intermediate in protein content and rich in calcium and
riboflavin. The post harvest losses of this vegetable are quite
serious in our country so drying or dehydration should be
carried out to increase its shelf life but challenge in fruits and
vegetables drying are to reduce the moisture content of the
product to a level where microbiological growth will not occur
and simultaneously keep the high nutritive value.

Onions are dried from initial moisture content of about 82 per
cent to 6 per cent or less sufficient for storage and processing
1
.
V-12 is the special variety of white onion which is used for
dehydration purpose due to its high solid content (17-18 per
cent). Tray drying brings the product to undesirable changes in
colour, texture, flavor and loss in nutritive value
2
. Hence, a new
method of drying in combination of osmosis (in which partial
dehydration of the fruit is brought about by immersing them in
osmotic solution using controlled heat transfer applications and
then drying) could be a good solution
3
.

Osmosis of onion is done in salt solution because the
reconstitution factor for salt-treated samples is greater than that
for sugar-treated product
4
. Osmotic dehydration is effective
even at ambient temperature, so that damage of texture, color,
and flavor of food from heat are minimized
5
. Microwave drying
has been shown to have low energy consumption
6
. Heating is
more rapid because the surface-to-centre conduction stage is
largely eliminated
7
. Microwaves have been shown to result in
faster drying of materials and satisfying certain quality
constraints of product for corn
8
and raisins
9
.

Material and Methods
Materials: The good quality white onions (cultivar V-12) were
selected and cut with a sharp stainless steel knife into circular
slices of approximate 4 mm + 0.1 mm thickness.

Measurement of initial Moisture Content: The moisture
content of the fresh as well as osmotically dehydrated onion
samples was determined by using AOAC (1984) method.
1 2
2
Percent moisture content (db) 100
W W
W

=

Microwave Drying Characteristics: Water loss: The water
loss (WL) is defined as the net weight loss of the fruit on initial
weight basis and will be estimated as
WL =
i
i i
W
X W X W
u u
. .

Mass reduction: The weight reduction (WR) can be defined as
the net weight loss of the fruit on initial weight basis.
WR =
i
i
W
W W
u

Microwave drying of onion: Main switch control put at ON
condition which gives the power to blower for cooling the
magnetron and then switched ON the filament switch of the
magnetron which gives 100 per cent voltage to filaments after a
delay of 120 seconds then known percentage of initial moisture
content and known weighed sample of onion were taken and
uniformly spread on the turntable inside the microwave cavity,
for an even absorption of microwave energy. Now power level
and time were pre-set through a control panel provided on front
side of dryer.

Moisture Diffusivity: The moisture diffusivity of the samples
was estimated by using the simplified mathematical Ficks
diffusion model.
Research Journal of Chemical Sciences __________________________________________________________ ISSN 2231-606X
Vol. 2(4), 57-60, April (2012) Res.J.Chem.Sci
International Science Congress Association 58
2
2
X
M
D
t
M
o
o
o
o
=

|
|
.
|

\
|
=
|
|
.
|

\
|

=
2
2
2
0
8
ln ln ] ln[
L
t D
M M
M M
MR
eff
e
e
t
t

A general form of above eq
n
could be written in semi-
logarithmic form, as follows.
( ) Bt A M
R
= ln


Experimental values of the effective diffusivity are typically
calculated by plotting experimental drying data in terms of ln
(M
R
) versus drying time and the slope of the curve was a
measure of the moisture diffusivity.
2
2
L
D
Slope
eff
t
=

Quality evaluation: In order to determine quality of osmotic
dehydrated onion samples had been evaluated on the basis
several parameters such as, colour, rehydration and water
activity.

Colour measurement: The most common technique to assess
the colour is Hunter lab colorimeter used in the present.

Water activity: A digital water activity meter was used for
measuring water activity of dehydrated onion samples.

Rehydration ratio: The rehydration ratio of dried onion
samples was determined by putting 10 g of samples with 1000
ml of distilled water in beaker. It was allowed to rehydrate for 5
h at 20
0
C temperature.
( )
( ) g samples dried of Mass
g samples rehydrated of Mass
nratio rehydratio =


Specific energy consumption
) (
) 100 (
f i
f on
M M m
M t P
SEC

=


Results and Discussion
Microwave drying of onion slices: The weight of the onion
samples was taken after every 15 min intervals for the first one
hour of the experiments. Afterwards the weight was noted after
30 min intervals till the sample attained constant weight. The
drying times of onions slices by microwave drying at 0.25,
1.00, 1.50 and 2.25 kW power level were 15.86, 6.78, 5.3 and
3.2 hrs respectively. Graph plotted as moisture content v/s
drying time (figure 1).

Moisture Diffusivity of onion slices: Moisture ratio plotted as
ln (MR) v/s drying time (figure 2). The variation in (MR) with
drying time for each case was found to be linear. The slope
became steeper with increase in microwave power level.
Moisture diffusivities were calculated from the slopes of these
straight lines
10,11
. It was observed that moisture diffusivity
increased with microwave power level in microwave drying
processes .The moisture diffusivity varied in the range of 6.491
10
-09
to 6.491 10
-08
m/s during microwave drying of onion
samples.





















Figure-1
Drying curve for fresh onion slices by microwave drying


Microwave drying of onion slices
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 1000
Drying time (min)
Moisture content, per cent
0.2 1.0 1.5 2.25
Research Journal of Chemical Sciences __________________________________________________________ ISSN 2231-606X
Vol. 2(4), 57-60, April (2012) Res.J.Chem.Sci
International Science Congress Association 59
Effect of process parameter on quality: The quality of
dehydrated onion slices was evaluated on the basis of colour as
well as water activity. The L* (lightness) increased for the
onion slices when power level was increased from 0.25 kW to
1.50 kW, meaning that sample became lighter in colour,
However, L-value reduced further at 2.25 kW level possibly
due to exposure of product to high temperature result in
darkening of dried product (table 2).

Water activity: Water activity was determined as a measure of
storage stability using a Hygrolab-3 water activity meter for all
samples. The water activity of all samples were around 0.46-
0.61 which is recommended to avoid microbial growth and
enzymatic reactions
12
.

Specific Energy Consumption: Specific energy consumption
was determined using equation and the data are summarized in
table 5.

The specific energy consumption was found more at 1.50 kW
(35.39) power level.
















Figure-2
Variation in ln (MR) with drying time at different power levels for microwave drying of onion slices

Table-1
Effective moisture diffusivity of onion slices during microwave drying
Sr. no Microwave Level Diffusivity (m
2
/s) R
2

1 0.25 6.49114 x 10
-09
0.9112
2 1.00 1.29823 x 10
-08
0.946
3 1.50 4.86835 x 10
-08
0.9374
4 2.25 6.49114 x 10
-08
0.9409

Table-2
Lightness (L* values) of microwave dried onion slices
Drying method Mw Density L* a* b*
Microwave Drying
0.25 33.11 7.23 3.97
1.00 41.53 6.82 4.71
1.50 41.61 7.15 5.95
2.25 38.48 8.54 6.30

Table-3
Rehydrational characteristics of microwave dried onion slices
Sr.no Drying Techniques
Microwave Level
(kW)
Rehydration ratio
(RR)
Coefficient of rehydration
(COR)
1
Microwave Drying
0.25 3.74 0.71
2 1.00 3.94 0.75
3 1.50 4.18 0.80
4 2.25 4.21 0.80
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Time (min)
lnMR
0.25 kW 1.0 kW 1.5 kW 2.25 kW
Research Journal of Chemical Sciences __________________________________________________________ ISSN 2231-606X
Vol. 2(4), 57-60, April (2012) Res.J.Chem.Sci
International Science Congress Association 60
Table-4
Water activity (a
w
) of microwave dried onion slices

Table-5
Specific energy consumption of Osmo-microwave and microwave dried onion slices at different power levels
Sr. No Microwave Level Drying Time (min) SEC (MJ/Kg
water
)
1 0.25 952 17.66
2 1.00 407 23.20
3 1.50 318 35.39
4 2.25 192 32.05

Conclusion
Based on the results of the investigation, the following
conclusions were drawn: The moisture diffusivity varied in the
range of 6.491 10
-09
to 6.491 10
-08
m/s during microwave
drying of onion samples. Microwave drying efficiency of onion
was in the range of 17.43 to 34.93 (MJ/Kg
water
) at different
power levels The values of rehydration ratio of microwave
dried sample ranged from 3.74 to 4.21. Microwave power level
had a significant effect on the rehydration ratio, colour and
water activity of dried samples.

Notations Used:
u
W = mass of slices after time , g,
i
W =
initial mass of slices, g , WR = weight reduction,
u
W = mass
of slices after time , g ,
i
W = initial mass of slices, g,
u
X =
water content as a fraction of mass of slices at time .,
i
X
=water content as a fraction of initial mass of slices, D =
diffusion coefficient, M = moisture content g water per g dry
matter, X= characteristic dimension i.e. distance from the center
of the line and, T= time elapsed during the drying , SEC = Sp.
energy consumption (J/kg water), ton = total power-on time (s),
P = microwave power input (W), m = initial mass (kg), Mi =
initial moisture content (ratio, wet basis), Mf = final moisture
content (ratio, wet basis)

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Sr. No Drying Technique Power Level (%) Water activity (a
w
)
1
Microwave Drying
0.25 0.616
2 1.00 0.536
3 1.50 0.595
4 2.25 0.610