Water absorption characteristics of apricot kernels during soaking

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate water absorption characteristics of apricot kernels using Peleg's model between temperatures of 20 and 50C. The Peleg constant K-1 decreased from 5.52 x 10(-2) to 1.63 x 10(-2)/h% for apricot kernels with increasing temperature from 20 to 50C. An inverse linear relationship was found for the soaking temperature and Peleg constant K-1, while Peleg constant K-2 was unaffected by the soaking temperature. The predictive capability of Peleg's equation for apricot kernels was tested, and differences between experimental and predicted moisture content values were not significant at 5% level (P < 0.05). The average activation energy (E-a) for K-1 was 29.4 kJ/mol.