Kinetics of osmotic dehydration of coconut.

Osmotic dehydration rates were determined for coconut over a range of
osmotic solution concentration (40-70°B) and temperature (25-45C). A semiempirical
relation for kinetics of osmotic dehydration has been proposed, which
indicates the moisture diffusion as a function of concentration of osmotic solution
and its temperature. Good agreement was observed between the observed and
predicted values (correlation coefficient 0.90). The effective diffusion coefficients
of water in coconut during osmotic dehydration were estimated and also the
activation energy of the osmotic dehydration process of coconut was found as
1.75 × 104 J/kg-mole.