Food Research International 69 (2015) 410–417

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food Research International

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodres

Effect of process variables on the drying rate of mango pulp by

Refractance Window
Marta Fernanda Zotarelli, Bruno Augusto Mattar Carciofi, João Borges Laurindo ⁎
Department of Chemical and Food Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina, EQA/CTC/UFSC, 88040-900, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Refractance Window (RW) process is considered a novel and promising drying method, which uses hot water in
Received 15 August 2014 contact with a polyester film (Mylar) at its bottom face to heat up and dry out a solution spread on the film
Accepted 23 January 2015 surface. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of process variables on the RW drying of mango
Available online 31 January 2015
pulp: water temperature (75, 85 and 95 °C), product thickness (2, 3 and 5 mm) and radiant source (transparent
and painted Mylar film). Films' transmissivities to infrared radiation were determined and the drying kinetics of
Keywords:
Refractance Window
mango pulp with the nine possible pairs of layer thickness and water temperature were assessed. Mylar film was
Pulp partially transparent to infrared radiation, while the black film (Mylar painted) blocked all infrared radiation
Fruit emitted from the hot water. RW evaporation capacity was up to 10 kg m−2 h−1 (pulp with 2 mm, water at
Drying 95 °C), indicating a very efficient drying process. RW is more efficient than black film process for pulp thickness
Powder up to 3 mm. In fact, this study clearly established that radiative heat transfer contributes to less than 5% of the
total amount of energy delivery to food during the RW drying process.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction water circulating in a reservoir. A polyester film, used as the mat in

The development of powdered foods has grown in recent years, and
this trend is mainly due to the convenience offered by these products,
their chemical and microbiological stability, and reduced transportation
and storage costs (Forny, Marabi, & Palzer, 2011). The main drying
processes used to produce powdered foods are spray drying (SD),
drum drying (DD), and freeze-drying. To be more competitive,
powdered foods should maintain their nutritional, physical and chemi-
cal characteristics, and be produced at low cost. However, producing
high-quality powdered foods at low-cost is not always possible from
the above-mentioned processes (Ochoa-Martínez, Quintero, Ayala, &
Ortiz, 2012).
An alternative drying process for producing powdered foods is the
Refractance Window (RW) drying. RW is a method for concentrating
and drying solutions and purees that allows obtaining films and flakes
at relatively low processing temperatures, with reasonable costs
(Nindo, Feng, Shen, & Kang, 2003). According to Nindo and Tang
(2007), for the same drying capacity, the RW equipment requires
50–70% less capital expenditure and 50% less energy than the freeze-
drier process.
In the RW drying process, a solution or puree is spread onto a trans-
parent polyester mat, which has its lower surface in contact with hot
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 48 37215229; fax: +55 48 37219687.
E-mail address: jb.laurindo@ufsc.br (J.B. Laurindo).
which the drying solution or suspension is spread, is partially transpar-
ent to infrared radiation and commercially known as Mylar, from
DuPont, USA (Nindo & Tang, 2007). The heat required by the drying
process is supplied by the hot water circulating in the reservoir. One
advantage of this drying method is the possibility of using a relatively
low drying temperature and controlling the residence time of the drying
solution, which enables obtaining flocculated or powdered products
with good sensory properties and reduced nutritional losses (Abonyi
et al., 2002; Nindo & Tang, 2007).
In this sense, RW has been used for processing fruit and vegetable
pulps in order to obtain dried powders, with results that indicate good
retention of natural compounds (Clarke, 2004). Abonyi et al. (2002)
investigated different drying methods (Refractance Window (RW),
spray drying (SD), drum drying (DD) and freeze-drying) for drying
strawberry pulp and carrot puree, evaluating color and retention of
carotenoids, vitamin C, and volatile compounds of dried products. The
authors reported that DD caused the greatest loss of carotenes in carrot
puree (approximately 56%), followed by RW (8.7%) and freeze-drying
(4%). The retention of ascorbic acid in strawberry powder was quite
similar in the products dehydrated by RW and freeze-drying. However,
losses of volatiles observed in strawberry pulps dried by RW and SD
were higher than in pulps dehydrated by freeze-drying, a result that is
explained by the use of higher temperatures in the first two processes.
Nonetheless, the authors concluded that the product dried by RW
had overall quality parameters comparable to those dehydrated by
freeze-drying.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2015.01.013
0963-9969/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M.F. Zotarelli et al. / Food Research International 69 (2015) 410–417
Nindo et al. (2003) conducted experiments with pumpkin puree to
evaluate the energy efficiency of the RW process, and its effect on
microbial reduction. For heating water at 95 °C the authors reported
logarithmic reductions of 4.6 for total aerobic (APC), 6.1 for coliforms,
6.0 for Escherichia coli and 5.5 for Listeria innocua.
Caparino et al. (2012) investigated the effects of DD, SD, RW, and
freeze-drying processes on the physical properties and microstructures
of mango powders. They reported very similar results from samples
dehydrated by RW and freeze-drying, and concluded that RW can
produce mango powder with quality comparable to those obtained by
freeze-drying, and superior than those obtained by SD and DD.
As RW drying is a relatively new technology, much of the available
literature is about the comparison of the physicochemical quality of
the products obtained by RW with those produced by traditional
processes (Abonyi et al., 2002; Caparino, Sablani, Tang, Syamaladevi, &
Nindo, 2013; Ochoa-Martínez et al., 2012; Pavan, Schmidt, & Feng,
2012; Topuz, Feng, & Kushad, 2009; Topuz et al., 2011). Little informa-
tion on the contribution of the heat and mass transfer mechanisms
during drying by RW is found in the literature (Nindo & Tang, 2007).
Based on this specific lack of information, the aim of this study was
to investigate the influence of drying temperature, origin of the infrared
radiation, and pulp layer thickness on the drying rates of mango pulp
treated by RW. The choice of using mango as raw material is related to
the possibility of adding value to this important tropical fruit.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Preparation of mango pulp
The Tommy Atkins mangos used in this study were bought in retail
stores in Florianópolis, SC, Brazil. The fruits were selected according
to their degree of ripeness, from visual analysis and soluble solids
concentration (°Brix). The selected mangos had soluble solids content
ranging from 12 to 16 °Bx, as determined by a manual refractometer
(Reichert, Model AR200, USA) with measurement range of 0–90 °Bx
and 0.2 °Bx resolution. The fruits were washed, peeled by hand, and
ground in a household blender (Arno, São Paulo, Brazil) to obtain the
mango pulp. Before the drying process, the pulp was sieved using a 16
mesh sieve in order to retain large particles and fibers.
2.2. Experimental device: batch RW process
For the RW drying of mango pulp a laboratory-scale RW dryer,
operating in batch, was built using the same principle as the
industrial equipment (Clarke, 2004; Nindo & Tang, 2007; Nindo et al.,
Fig. 1. Sketch of the Refractance Window experimental device.
411
2003). The device, shown in Fig. 1, consists of a container
(0.8 m × 0.4 m × 0.05 m) with a plastic film (mat) covering its top
(fixed and sealed at the border by an O-ring and screws), and hot
water circulating from a thermostatic bath (DIST model DIST921,
Brazil).
The plastic mat is a 0.25 mm-thick Mylar film (D type, DuPont,
USA), which was set at the top of the reservoir, so that the bottom
was in contact with the circulating water and the upper face served
as support for the spread fruit pulp (fruit-pulp layer) to be dried.
The thickness of the Mylar film was chosen based on literature data
(Nindo et al., 2003).
2.3. Mylar film transmissivity
The transmissivities to infrared radiation of 0.25 mm-thick Mylar
film and a sample of this film painted black, with heat-resistant spray
paint (Colorgin, Sherwin-Williams, Brazil) were determined. The
average thickness of the painted film was determined at various film
regions with a digital micrometer (Mitutoyo, APB-1D, Japan), resulting
in an average value of 0.33 ± 0.02 mm. The transmissivity was
determined with a FTIR spectrometer (Oriel MIR8025TM Modular IR
Fourier Spectrometer) based on the Michelson interferometer
(Nicolau, Scopel, & Possoli, 2009). The FTIR spectrometer operates
with emission spectrum range from 1.7 to 27 μm.
2.4. Drying rates of mango pulp
Mango powder was obtained from mango pulp dehydrated by
Refractance Window (RW, non-painted film) and on a black film
(BF, with the Mylar film painted with a heat-resistant black ink).
For BF, the painted Mylar film was fixed to the same experimental
apparatus used in the RW drying process. In both cases, the mango
pulp was spread over the well stretched Mylar film with the help of
doctor-blade screws, which allows the pulp thickness to be adjusted.
The drying curves of mango pulp treated by RW and BF were
assessed from samples taken from different areas of the fruit pulp
spread, during the drying process, avoiding taking samples near the
edges. At each sample extraction, approximately 0.7 g was taken from
the mango pulp with a spatula, weighed in an analytical scale
(Shimadzu, model AY220, Japan), vacuum dried at 70 °C (TECNAL,
model TE-395, Brazil) (A.O.A.C., 2005), and weighed again, for moisture
determination. The experimental conditions for both drying processes
(RW and BF) were the same, i.e., three different temperatures of the
circulating water (75, 85 and 95 °C) and three different thicknesses of
the pulp layer (2, 3 and 5 mm). Experiments were carried out at
412 M.F. Zotarelli et al. / Food Research International 69 (2015) 410–417
ambient air RH ranging between 58 and 68%, and temperature close to
25 °C. All experiments were performed in triplicate. The drying rates
were obtained from the slope of the linear equation fitted to the initial
part of the drying curves (moisture content vs. time).
2.5. Temperature measurements
For the temperature measurements during drying, thermographs
were taken from the pulp surface (thermographic camera approximate-
ly 50 cm above the pulp surface — FLIR model T360, Sweden) during the
drying processes (RW and BF). For fixing the pulp film thickness and
delimiting the measurement area, a 2 mm-thick metal frame was
used. This procedure was important to allow comparisons between
RW and BF processes, at the different process conditions. This frame
was attached to the Mylar film and the mango pulp was spread inside
it. Thus, the film thickness was controlled and the pulp excess was
removed with an iron scale. To highlight the region under drying on
the micrographs, a polystyrene frame was placed over the metal frame.
For image recording, some parameters were set in the thermograph-
ic camera, such as the distance between the camera and the mango pulp
surface, the emissivity of mango pulp, ambient temperature and relative
humidity. Due to the high moisture content in the pulp (about 86%
w.b.), its emissivity was considered the same as the water (ε = 0.96)
(Incropera, DeWitt, Bergman, & Lavine, 2007, Chapter 12). The ambient
relative humidity (RH) and temperature were measured with a
thermohygrometer with an accuracy of ±2.5% RH (Testo, model 610,
Germany). The images were analyzed with the software FLIR
QuickReport 1.2 SP2. This software provides the maximum and
minimum temperature at each image area. The evolution of mango
pulp temperatures was also determined by T-type thermocouples
(IOPE, model TF-TX-A-R-30AWG, Brazil) connected to a data acquisition
system (Agilent, model 34970A, Malaysia). The thermocouples were
installed in five microregions of the pulp layer and in nine regions of
the water container.
2.6. Statistical analysis
The software Statistica 7.1 (Statsoft Inc., Tulsa, USA) was used to
perform the statistical analyses of the results of drying rate and
evaporative capacity. A multiple comparison of means was analyzed
by using the Tukey test at the 95% confidence level (p b 0.05).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Emission, transmission and absorption of infrared radiation during
drying
Three main aspects should be evaluated in the RW process: the
emission spectrum of the heating source (hot water or black paint),
the transmission spectrum of the propagation medium (Mylar), and
the product (mango pulp) absorption spectrum.
The transmissivities data of transparent Mylar film (original) and of
Mylar film painted black are shown in Fig. 2. The original Mylar film
showed transmissivity peaks to the incident infrared radiation mainly
for wavelengths in the range of 2–6 μm and 14–19 μm. This result is in
agreement with those obtained by Meinel and Meinel (1976) in a
study on the transmissivity of some polymer films, including
0.13 mm-thick Mylar film. However, the transmission peaks reported
by the authors were almost twice the values observed in the present
study. This difference may be related to the greater thickness of the
film used in the present work (Ratti & Mujumdar, 2006). Thinner
films are more transparent to infrared radiation, but they have lower
mechanical strength, which makes them more difficult to use, because
hot water pressure on the film can cause its deformation.
On the other hand, it is evident (Fig. 2) that the paint applied to
the Mylar film blocked almost all the infrared radiation from water in
90
80
RW
70 BF
Transmission (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
Wavelength (µm)
Fig. 2. Transmissivities: ( ) transparent Mylar used in RW drying and ( ) black
film (Mylar painted black) used in BF drying.
the wavelength range evaluated. However, the heated black paint
emits radiation. The emissivity of the black film was determined exper-
imentally and the value obtained was 0.98 (data not shown), which is
consistent with the data reported by Incropera et al. (2007).
According to Wien's displacement law, a black body at around 373 K
(100 °C) shows maximum emission (102 W m−2 μm−1) at wavelength
of approximately 8 μm. Furthermore, at wavelengths between 4 μm and
40 μm, the emission corresponds to more than 10% of the maximum
emission (101 W m−2 μm−1) (Incropera et al., 2007, Chapter 12) and
the Mylar film shows transmissivity peaks of about 40%. Due to the
product high moisture content, it is reasonable to assume that the pulp's
absorption of radiation is similar to that of pure water, which absorbs
more infrared radiation at wavelengths around 3.0, 4.7, 6.0 μm and
above 12 μm (Sandu, 1986; Sternglanz, 1956). As can be seen in Fig. 2,
at these wavelengths Mylar film showed transmissivity peaks to the in-
cident infrared radiation. These data suggest the effectiveness of heat
transfer by radiation in the RW process.
According to Nindo and Tang (2007), when the pulp with high
moisture content is spread on the Mylar top, refraction at the plastic-
pulp interface is reduced and the radiant thermal energy is more easily
transmitted from the plastic to the product. In fact, the refractive
indexes are 1.64 for Mylar (Tsilingiris, 2003), 1.33 for water, and 1 for
air (Siegel & Howell, 1992). Thus, the reflection loss coefficient of
normal radiation in air–Mylar system (rair–Mylar(0) = 0.0587) is almost
five times higher than in the water–Mylar system (rwater–Mylar(0) =
0.01073). Product properties change with the decrease of its moisture
during drying, i.e., pulp reflectivity increases and pulp absorptivity
decreases (Clarke, 2004; Nindo & Tang, 2007; Ratti & Mujumdar,
2006). In addition, heat transfer in the RW and BF processes decreases
due to the increase of the contact resistance between the Mylar film
and drying fruit pulp. This occurs as a consequence of the air and
water vapor layer formed between the Mylar film and the dried fruit
pulp, which detached from the plastic. This detachment could be
visually observed.
3.2. Drying experiments
The drying curves (moisture vs. time) of mango pulp treated by RW
and BF, for pulp layer thicknesses of 2, 3 and 5 mm and circulating water
at 75, 85 and 95 °C, are presented in Fig. 3. The drying rates for both
processes are presented in Table 1, at each experimental condition
investigated. The drying rates were constant during the drying of
pulps with thicknesses of 2 and 3 mm, for all the 3 circulating water
temperatures. This behavior can be explained by the high initial
moisture of the fruit pulp (86% wet basis) and its small thicknesses.
 M.F. Zotarelli et al. / Food Research International 69 (2015) 410–417 413

2 mm 3 mm 5 mm
7 7 7
6 BF 6 BF 6 BF
5 5 5
4 RW 4 RW 4 RW
3 3 3 75 °C
2 2 2
1 1 1
0 0 0

Moisture content (d. b.)

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
7 7 7
6 BF 6 BF 6 BF
5 5 5
4 RW 4 RW 4 RW 85 °C
3 3 3
2 2 2
1 1 1
0 0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
7 7 7
6 BF 6 BF 6 BF
5 5 5
4 RW 4 RW 4 RW 95 °C
3 3 3
2 2 2
1 1 1
0 0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time (min)

Fig. 3. Moisture content vs. time of mango pulp dried by RW (□) and BF (○) with pulp thickness of: (a) 2 mm, (b) 3 mm, and (c) 5 mm; with water temperatures at: (1) 75 °C, (2) 85 °C and
(3) 95 °C.

At these situations the water vapor pressure at the sample surface is
close to the saturation pressure during the drying process, and the
internal resistance to mass transfer is negligible (small thicknesses). If
the external conditions do not influence the drying rate (convective
drying is negligible), one can postulate that the film dehydration occurs
by classical evaporation and is controlled by the heat transfer from the
circulating water.
For the cases above (2 and 3 mm thick pulps, at 75, 85 and 95 °C), the
drying rates of pulps treated by RW were greater than those treated by
the BF process. The differences were observed at 75 °C, for which the
drying rates of samples treated by RW were 2.2 and 2.4 times greater
than the drying rates of pulps treated by the BF process, for 2 and
Table 1
Drying rates (mean ± standard deviation) and evaporative capacity (mean ± standard
deviation) for mango pulp dried by Refractance Window (RW) and black film (BF).
Drying Water Pulp Drying rate Evaporative
process temperature thickness (g g−1 min−1) capacity
(°C) (mm) (kg m−2 h−1)
RW 75 2 0.301 ± 0.033ª 5.21 ± 0.58a
3 0.177 ± 0.013a 4.62 ± 0.34a
5 0.061 ± 0.003a 2.67 ± 0.12a
85 2 0.508 ± 0.087a 8.81 ± 1.51a
3 0.189 ± 0.011a 4.91 ± 0.30a
5 0.092 ± 0.003a 4.00 ± 0.16a
95 2 0.603 ± 0.050a 10.75 ± 0.86a
3 0.331 ± 0.033a 8.61 ± 0.85a
5 0.091 ± 0.005a 3.94 ± 0.22a
BF 75 2 0.135 ± 0.019b 2.33 ± 0.34b
3 0.075 ± 0.007b 1.95 ± 0.20b
5 0.043 ± 0.003b 1.86 ± 0.11b
85 2 0.282 ± 0.026b 4.89 ± 0.45b
3 0.138 ± 0.014b 3.59 ± 0.37b
5 0.068 ± 0.010b 2.95 ± 0.44b
95 2 0.342 ± 0.037b 5.93 ± 0.65b
3 0.202 ± 0.012b 5.25 ± 0.32b
5 0.086 ± 0.005a 3.74 ± 0.23a
a,b
— values followed by different lowercase letters indicate significant difference (p b 0.05)
between drying rates and evaporative capacities observed for RW and BF performed with
the same temperature and pulp thickness.
3 mm pulp layer thickness, respectively. However, at the highest
temperature (95 °C) and greatest pulp layer thickness (5 mm) no
difference between the drying rates was observed.
As expected, warmer circulating water led to shorter drying times in
both RW and BF processes. In RW with 2 mm-thick pulp layer, the
drying rate increased 1.7 fold when the water temperature increased
from 75 to 85 °C and 2 fold when the water temperature increased
from 75 to 95 °C. For BF, at the same experimental conditions, the drying
rate increased 2.1 and 2.5 fold as water temperature increased from 75
to 85 °C and from 75 to 95 °C, respectively. For 5 mm-thick pulp layers,
the temperature increase had a smaller impact on the drying time,
mainly because the resistance to conduction heat transfer and mass
transfer (pathway for water diffusion) into the pulp becomes greater.
Besides, the incident thermal radiation becomes less important as
pulp layer thickness increases, due to the low penetration capacity of
infrared radiation.
Pulp layer thickness had great impact on drying rates in both RW
and BF. The drying rate in constant rate period decreased by at least
40% when the thickness of the drying pulp increased from 2 to 3 mm.
Drying rates observed for 2 mm-thick sample treated by RW was 4.9
(at 75 °C), 5.5 (at 85 °C), and 6.6 (at 95 °C) times higher than the drying
rates observed for 5 mm-thick pulp, treated by the same drying process.
Similarly, the drying rates observed for the pulp layers treated by the BF
process increased by 3.1, 4.1, and 4.0 fold (at 75, 85, and 95 °C, respec-
tively) when the pulp layer thickness decreased from 5 to 2 mm. Thus,
the influence of the circulating water temperature on the drying rates
is higher for thin pulp layers. The differences between the drying
rates of 2-mm-thick pulp layer treated by RW and BF ranged from 43
to 55%, depending on the water temperature. Similarly, for a 3 mm-
thick pulp layer, the differences between the processes ranged from
26 to 57%. However, no difference between the drying rates was
observed for 5 mm-thick pulp layer dried by RW and BF. Drying time
of fruit pulp with 2 and 3 mm thick ranged from 15 to 20 min, while
the characteristic drying time for 5 mm thick pulps ranged from 60 to
80 min. These results indicate that thicknesses around 3 mm tend to
be the better choice for drying mango pulp by RW.
The black ink blocked the radiation emitted by the hot water (Fig. 2),
but it is heated and emits thermal radiation (infrared radiation). The
differences between RW and BF drying rates could be explained from
414 M.F. Zotarelli et al. / Food Research International 69 (2015) 410–417
the paint's conductive resistance. In fact, the black paint layer increased
the Mylar film thickness by approximately 25%, leading to an increase of
the film's heat transfer resistance. However, this is not the only effect
present.
When the thermal radiation from water or black paint hits the Mylar
surface, its intensity is initially attenuated by reflection at the water–
Mylar or black paint–Mylar interface, according to Fresnel reflectance.
The remaining radiation that crosses the interface propagates in the
Mylar until the Mylar–pulp interface, suffering attenuation according
to the Beer's Law. At the second interface (Mylar–pulp), the radiation
will suffer a second reflection, and part of it crosses the interface and
reaches the pulp. Internal reflections at both interfaces are responsible
for further multiple reflections and absorption of radiation into the
Mylar film. In this way, the total radiation transmitted should be calcu-
lated as the contribution of all multiple transmission components at the
second interface (Siegel & Howell, 1992). As the water–Mylar and black
paint–Mylar contact interfaces are different, the reflection phenomena
can have different intensities in each case.
The pulp absorbs the transmitted radiation according to the Beer's
Law. The penetration depth of electromagnetic waves in a material is
commonly defined as the distance from the interface (radiation inci-
dence) in which the radiation energy is reduced to 1/e (36.79%) of the
incident radiation energy, in which e is the Euler number (Singh &
Heldman, 2009). For water, the penetration depth is 0.09 mm for a
wavelength between 2 and 200 μm. Thus, it is evident that thicker
pulp layer is less influenced by the infrared radiation during drying.
The discussion on the phenomena presented above pointed out the
mechanisms that are present in RW and BF drying processes. Neverthe-
less, it is important to evaluate the relative importance of each
mechanism on the drying rate. Some previous studies reported the
three heat transfer mechanisms present in RW drying, but they did
not present results or a quantitative analysis that show the relative
importance of each heat transfer mechanism to the drying process
(Clarke, 2004; Nindo & Tang, 2007; Nindo et al., 2003).
Simply, one can estimate the relative importance of heat transfer by
convection, conduction and radiation through an order of magnitude
analysis. Radiation heat transfer rate is maximum for a black body
(emissivity, ε = 1), for which the net heat flux is given by the Stefan–
Boltzmann equation,


 h i
4 4 −8 4 4 −2
qrad ¼ εσ T w −T p ¼ 1  5:670410  10 368 −348 ¼ 208 W m
ð1Þ
in which σ = 5.670410 × 10−8 W m−2 K−4 is the Stefan–Boltzmann
constant, Tw is the water temperature and Tp is the pulp temperature.
This calculation was performed to simulate the heat transfer by radia-
tion at the constant drying rate period, when the fruit pulp temperature
was approximately 75 °C.
Ta
Tu
Ti
Tb
Fig. 4. Representation of the thermal circuit in a Refractance Window drying system, in which Tw is the water temperature, Tb is the temperature of water–Mylar interface, Ti is the
temperature of Mylar–pulp interface, Tu is the temperature of pulp–air interface, Ta is the air temperature, qw is the heat transfer rate from hot water to the Mylar surface, qm is
the heat transfer rate through the Mylar, qp is the heat transfer rate through the mango pulp, qa is the heat transfer rate between pulp surface and air; Lp is the pulp thickness, Lm is the
Mylar thickness; Rw is the convective thermal resistance between water and Mylar, Rm is the thermal resistance through the Mylar, Rp is the thermal resistance of the mango pulp, Ra
is the convective thermal resistance between mango pulp and air; ṁw is the evaporation rate and ΔHv is latent heat of vaporization.
On the other hand, the total heat transfer from the hot water to the
fruit pulp can be estimated directly from the constant drying rate
observed in the experiments. For 2 mm thick pulp and heating water
at 95 °C the evaporation flux was approximately 10.7 kg m−2 h−1, as
showed in Table 1. This evaporation flux implies a heat flux of approxi-
mately 6.7 kW m− 2 (considering the latent heat of free water at
atmospheric pressure, 2256 kJ kg−1). The comparison between heat
transfer fluxes by radiation and estimated from the evaporation flux
shows that only approximately 3% of the overall heat supplied to the
pulp during drying at the constant rate period is from the infrared
radiation emitted by the hot water. This result was reached from an
order of magnitude analysis, neglecting ambient heat losses and
considering that all the radiation emitted by the hot water is transmit-
ted through the Mylar film and reaches the drying pulp. In fact, only a
fraction of this thermal radiation, no greater than 50%, reaches the
fruit pulp, as showed in Fig. 2.
From Fig. 4 one can perform a detailed analysis of the heat transfer
mechanisms in RW drying of mango pulp during the constant drying
rate period. The resistances present in the thermal circuit are:
i) The convective thermal resistance between water and Mylar, Rw,
is given by Eq. (2).
1
Rw ¼ ð2Þ
hw
in which hw is convective heat transfer coefficient between the
hot water and the Mylar film.
ii) As conductive and radiative heat transfer occurs in parallel, the
equivalent resistance through the Mylar, Rm, is given by Eq. (3).
!−1
1 1
Rm ¼ þ ð3Þ
Rm;k Rm;r
in which Rm,k = Lm/km is the Mylar conductive resistance (Lm =
2.5 × 10−4 m and km = 0.15 W m−1 K−1 are the Mylar thickness
and thermal conductivity, respectively) and Rm,r = 1/hr is the ra-
diative resistance in the Mylar, with hr = εσ(Tb + Ti)(T2b + T2i ).
iii) The heat transfer through the mango pulp can occur by conduc-
tion and free convection, in parallel. Therefore, the equivalent
thermal resistance through the pulp, Rp, is given by Eq. (4).
!−1
1 1 Lp
Rp ¼ þ ¼ ð4Þ
Rp;k Rp;c ke f
in which Rp,k is the conductive resistance in the mango pulp, Rp,c
is the convective resistance in the mango pulp, Lp is the pulp
 M.F. Zotarelli et al. / Food Research International 69 (2015) 410–417 415

thickness, kef is an effective coefficient of heat transfer through
the pulp.
iv) The convective thermal resistance between pulp and air, Ra, is
given by Eq. (5).
1 contribution of radiative heat transfer in RW drying performed at the
Ra ¼
ha
in which ha is the convective heat transfer coefficient between
pulp surface and air.
One cannot calculate the global resistance between hot water and
air, because the values of Rw, Rp and Ra are unknown. However, one
can calculate the ratio between conductive and radiative thermal
resistances through the Mylar at steady state. The radiative resistance
depends on the temperature difference between hot water–Mylar (Tb)
and Mylar–fruit pulp (Ti) interfaces. At the constant drying rate period,
Tb = 95 °C (neglecting Rw) and Ti = 75 °C (measured by thermocou-
ples), leading to a ratio Rm,k/Rm,r = 0.017. This ratio validates the
previous analysis based on the evaporation rate, ratifying the negligible
ð5Þ
investigated temperatures.
The evaporative capacity of the RW process was calculated from
the reproducible results showed in Table 1. For pulp layer thickness
of 2 mm and heating water at 95 °C (10.75 kg m− 2 h− 1) the result
is in agreement with those reported by Nindo et al. (2003) during
the RW drying of pumpkin puree. These authors reported a water
evaporative capacity of 10 kg m− 2 h− 1 for puree thickness ranging
from 0.4 to 0.6 mm, in a pilot dryer with circulating water at 95 °C.
Nindo et al. (2003) also reported water evaporative capacity in the

Mylar surface without pulp 30 seconds after spreading pulp

Tmín. 89.0 °C – Tmax. 89.3 °C Tmin. 58.5 °C - Tmax 64.4 °C

(a) (b)

5 minutes - Tmin 67.9 °C - Tmax73.2 °C 10 minutes - Tmin.70.5 °C - Tmax 75.0 °C

(c) (d)

15 minutes - Tmin 71.2 °C - Tmax 88.5 °C 20 minutes - Tmin73.6 °C - Tmax 89.4 °C

(e) (f)

Fig. 5. Infrared thermography during Refractance Window drying of mango pulp with 2 mm-thick pulp layer and water at 95 °C.
416 M.F. Zotarelli et al. / Food Research International 69 (2015) 410–417

range of 3.1–4.6 kg m− 2 h− 1 in an industrial RW dryer. Evaporative
capacity of 6 kg m− 2 h− 1 during drying of 1 mm-thick carrot puree
and strawberry pulp (water at 95 °C) in a pilot continuous RW
dryer was reported by Abonyi, Tang, and Edwards (1999). Despite
the differences with the literature results, we supported our higher
evaporation rate results with reproducible experiments.
The time–temperature evolution of drying pulp surface was
determined by thermography during the RW and BF processes
performed with 2 mm-thick pulp and water at 95 °C, and is shown in
Figs. 5 and 6, respectively. No relevant temperature differences can be
seen on the Mylar surface without the mango pulp (Figs. 5a and 6a).
However, temperature gradients were observed on the pulp's surface
in the course of the drying process (Figs. 5b–f and 6b–e), which are
mainly due to the spatial differences on the pulp layer thickness. After
spreading, pulp temperatures quickly increased up to 70 °C and
remained practically stable during the constant drying rate period.
From 10 to 15 min after the RW process started (Fig. 5c and d) the tem-
perature began to rise in some areas, due to their low moisture content.
In BF drying the temperature increase started at approximately 20 min
after the process started (Fig. 6d).
Fig. 7 shows pulp time–temperature evolution registered by five
thermocouples inserted into the pulp layer, for both, RW and BF
processes. The temperatures measured by the thermocouples were
slightly higher than those indicated by the thermographs, which are
related to the pulp temperature. Similar to the thermographs, thermo-
couple data showed a rapid temperature increase until it reached a
plateau close to 75 °C. In the BF process, a small temperature decrease
is observed during the constant drying rate, probably due to the
evaporative cooling caused by a longer contact with the ambient air.
Thermocouples can detach or be uncovered by the pulp during
drying, because pulp layer thickness decreases during the drying
(drying shrinking), which modify the temperature results. Pulp temper-
atures measured by the thermocouples differed by up to 5 °C from the
temperatures assessed from the thermographs. This difference can
also be attributed to the lack of accuracy in the evaluation of pulp
emissivity during drying.

Mylar surface without pulp 30 seconds after spreading pulp

Tmin 85.6 °C - Tmax 89.5 °C Tmin 44.8 °C - Tmax 59.6 °C

(a) (b)

10 minutes - Tmin 65.4 °C - Tmax 73.2 °C 20 minutes - Tmin 65.6 °C - Tmax 85.2 °C

(c) (d)

30 minutes - Tmin 83.7 °C - Tmax 86.1 °C

(e)

Fig. 6. Infrared thermography during black film drying of mango pulp with 2 mm-thick pulp layer and water at 95 °C.
 M.F. Zotarelli et al. / Food Research International 69 (2015) 410–417
90
85
Pulp temperatures - RW
80
75
Temperature (°C) 70
65
60
55
50
45
40
0 5 10
Fig. 7. Time–temperature evolution of mango pulp during RW ( ) and BF (●) drying.
4. Conclusions
As expected, higher water temperatures led to higher drying rates,
presenting great improvement on the drying rates of thinner pulp
layers. Thicker pulp layers are less influenced by temperature variations,
due to their higher heat and mass transfer resistances, which control the
process. RW drying is more efficient in transferring energy than BF
drying because the additional layer of black paint increased the total
resistance from increasing conductive resistance. Evaporation capacity
up to 10 kg m−2 h− 1 (pulp with 2 mm, water at 95 °C) showed that
RW is a very efficient drying process, even if the relative importance
of radiation heat transfer is negligible. In fact, this study clearly
established that radiative heat transfer contributes to less than 5% of
the total thermal energy delivery to food during the RW drying process.
Results indicated thicknesses close to 3 mm as a better condition for
mango pulp drying and also showed RW as a competitive drying pro-
cess to dehydrate fruit pulps.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank CNPq, FAPESC-SC, and CAPES/Brazil for the finan-
cial support.
References
A.O.A.C. Association of Official Analytical Chemists (2005). Official methods of analysis
(18th ed.). Gaithersburg, Maryland: A.O.A.C. INTERNATIONAL.
Abonyi, B. I., Feng, H., Tang, C. G., Edwards, B. P., Mattinson, D. S., & Fellman, J. K. (2002).
Quality retention in strawberry and carrot purees dried with Refractance Window
system. Journal of Food Science, 67, 1051–1056.
Abonyi, B. I., Tang, J., & Edwards, C. G. (1999). Evaluation of energy efficiency and quality
retention for the Refractance Window™ drying system. Research Report. Pullman,
WA: Washington State University.
Caparino, O. A., Sablani, S. S., Tang, J., Syamaladevi, R. M., & Nindo, C. I. (2013). Water
sorption, glass transition, and microstructures of Refractance Window- and freeze-
dried mango (Philippine “carabao” var.) powder. Drying Technology, 1969–1978.
417
Pulp temperatures - BF
15 20 25 30 35
Time (min)
Caparino, O. A., Tang, J., Nindo, C. I., Sablani, S. S., Powers, J. R., & Fellman, J. K. (2012).
Effect of drying methods on the physical properties and microstructures of mango
(Philippine ‘Carabao’ var.) powder. Journal of Food Engineering, 11, 135–148.
Clarke, P. T. (2004). Refractance Window™ — “Down under”. Proceedings of the
international drying symposium (IDS 2004) (pp. 813–820).
Forny, L., Marabi, A., & Palzer, S. (2011). Wetting, disintegration and dissolution of
agglomerated water soluble powders. Powder Technology, 206, 72–78.
Incropera, F. P., DeWitt, D. P., Bergman, T. L., & Lavine, A. S. (2007). Fundamentals of heat
and mass transfer (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Meinel, A. B., & Meinel, M. P. (1976). Applied solar energy: An introduction (4th ed.).
Addison-Wesley Series in Physics.
Nicolau, V. P., Scopel, D. A. B., & Possoli, K. (2009). Experimental apparatus to deter-
mine spectral emissivities of ceramic samples. Cobem [S.I.], Gramado — RS —
Brasil, 2009.
Nindo, C. I., Feng, H., Shen, G. Q., & Kang, D. H. (2003). Energy utilization and microbial
reduction in a new film drying system. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation,
27(2), 117–136.
Nindo, C. I., & Tang, J. (2007). Refractance Window dehydration technology: A novel
contact drying method. Drying Technology, 25, 37–48.
Ochoa-Martínez, C. I., Quintero, P. T., Ayala, A. A., & Ortiz, M. J. (2012). Drying character-
istics of mango slices using the Refractance Window™ technique. Journal of Food
Engineering, 109, 69–75.
Pavan, A. M., Schmidt, S. J., & Feng, H. (2012). Water sorption behavior and thermal
analysis of freeze-dried, Refractance Window-dried and hot-air dried açaí (Euterpe
oleracea Martius) juice. LWT — Food Science and Technology, 48(1), 75–81.
Ratti, C., & Mujumdar, A. S. (2006). Infrared drying. In A. S. Mujumdar (Ed.), Handbook of
industrial drying (pp. 423–437). CRC Press.
Sandu, C. (1986). Infrared radiative drying in food engineering: A process analysis.
Biotechnology Progress, 2(3), 109–119.
Siegel, R., & Howell, J. R. (1992). Thermal radiation heat transfer (3th ed.). London: Taylor
& Francis Group, 93–133.
Singh, R. P., & Heldman, D. R. (2009). Introduction to food engineering (4th ed.). London:
Elsevier Publishing, 375–376.
Sternglanz, H. (1956). Using water as an infrared solvent. Journal of Applied Spectroscopy,
2, 77–82.
Topuz, A., Dincer, C., Özdemir, K. S., Sultan, K., Feng, H., & Kushad, M. (2011). Influence of
different drying methods on carotenoids and capsaicinoids of paprika (Cv., Jalapeno).
Food Chemistry, 129, 860–865.
Topuz, A., Feng, H., & Kushad, M. (2009). The effect of drying method and storage on color
characteristics of paprika. LWT — Food Science and Technology, 42, 1667–1673.
Tsilingiris, P. T. (2003). The total infrared transmittance of polymerized vinyl fluoride
films for a wide range of radiant source temperature. Renewable Energy an
International Journal, 28(6), 887–900.