Investigation of energy consumption and drying kinetics of thyme leaves in microwave dryer

In this study the effect of microwave power on drying behavior، effective moisture diffusion، the best mathematical model of drying، activation energy values and energy consumption of the herb thyme was investigated. Results of regression analysis of mathematical models in MATLAB software points that the Midili model has the best described to the data. Effective diffusion coefficient of herb thyme was found to be between 15. 416 and 213. 802m2/s. Also the activation energy was determined to be 84. 86 W/g for constant drying rate and 100 W/g for effective moisture diffusion. In addition، the minimum and maximum value of specific energy consumption drying of herb thyme was 6. 994 to 19. 607 kW/kg، respectively.