Water sorption isotherms of globe artichoke leaves

Abstract

One third of the artichoke production is used in industrial processes, where up to 70% - 85% of the initial raw material is transformed into solid wastes. For an adequate management of these wastes, it is necessary to know their water sorption properties, because physical, chemical andbiological changes which occur during theirstorage depend on water-solid interactions. The objectives of this work are to experimentally determine equilibrium sorption (adsorption anddesorption) data of artichoke wastes at different temperatures (25 ° C - 55 ° C), as well as correlate and predict water sorption isotherms using bibliographic models. Equilibrium moisture content ranged 0 - 0.6 kg water/kg dry solid (water activity 0.05 - 0.9). Water sorption isotherms were classified between Types II and III. Hysteresis phenomenon was not observed, neither was the dependence of the equilibrium data with temperature. BET, GAB, Oswin and Peleg correlation models were satisfactorily fitted to experimental data. A predictive model based on composition and physical state of artichoke waste components was also successfully used to reproduce experimental data.