Thin-layer drying of parchment Arabica coffee by controlling temperature and relative humidity.

This paper presents thin-layer drying of parchment coffee (Coffea arabica). Thin-layer drying of parchment coffee was conducted under controlled temperatures (50°C, 60°C, and 70°C) and relative humidities (10%-30%). The temperature of the drying air was important for drying at a high temperature, which results in the rapid removal of moisture and reduced time for drying. Nine thin-layer drying models (Newton, Page, Henderson and Pabis, logarithmic, two-term, modified Henderson and Pabis, two-term exponential, approximation diffusion, and modified-Midilli) were fitted to the experimental data for parchment coffee. The drying parameters of parchment coffee were related to temperature and relative humidity. The best model was the modified-Midilli model, which can be used to design the optimal dryer. The effective moisture diffusivity of parchment coffee drying was determined by minimizing the sum of squares of the deviations between the experimental data for the moisture content and the predicted values of thin-layer drying. The effective moisture diffusivity as a function of the temperature at each relative humidity was expressed by the Arrhenius-type equation.

Multi-Layered TiO2 Films towards Enhancement of Escherichia coli Inactivation.

Crystalline TiO2 has shown its great photocatalytic properties in bacterial inactivation. This work presents a design fabrication of low-cost, layered TiO2 films assembled reactors and a study of their performance for a better understanding to elucidate the photocatalytic effect on inactivation of E. coli in water. The ability to reduce the number of bacteria in water samples for the layered TiO2 composing reactors has been investigated as a function of time, while varying the parameters of light sources, initial concentration of bacteria, and ratios of TiO2 film area and volume of water. Herein, the layered TiO2 films have been fabricated on the glass plates by thermal spray coating prior to screen printing, allowing a good adhesion of the films. Surface topology and crystallographic phase of TiO2 for the screen-printed active layer have been characterized, resulting in the ratio of anatase:rutile being 80:20. Under exposure to sunlight and a given condition employed in this study, the optimized film area:water volume of 1:2.62 has shown a significant ability to reduce the E. coli cells in water samples. The ratio of surface area of photocatalytic active base to volume of water medium is believed to play a predominant role facilitating the cells inactivation. The kinetic rate of inactivation and its behavior are also described in terms of adsorption of reaction species at different contact times.