Oven Dried Nephelium Lappaceum (Rambutan): Study on Drying Kinetics

Rambutan is a seasonal fruit that has short storage life which can be stored only for 4 to 5 days at ambient temperature with range of 70% - 87% relative humidity. During its season there is an excess of Rambutan fruits since they are produced in abundance. The over production causes the price of Rambutan to decrease and tonnes of them will end up as wastage. Thus drying technique has been chosen as a method to save this Rambutan fruits from being wastage. Five different drying temperatures have been applied during this study which are; 40 ºC 50ºC 60ºC 70ºC and 80ºC. Reason of drying has been chosen and details on experimental works have been explained in this book. Besides that there are a few semi-theoretical thin layer models that have been applied for drying kinetics analysis of Rambutan. It is expected that the storage life of Rambutan can be prolonged and its market potential could be increased by preserving them. Thus the wastage of harvested Rambutan during its season can be reduced.