Fractal Dimension of Pore Size Distribution Inside Matrix of Plant Materials and Drying Behavior

Author(s):  
Junhong Yang ◽  
Qianqian Di ◽  
Jun Zhao ◽  
Liqiu Wang

This paper studied the relationship between matrix microstructure of plant materials and drying behavior using Astragalus and Chinese Angelica root slices as examples. Astragalus and Chinese Angelica, two kinds of traditional Chinese Medicine Herb (CMH), are species of stem and root medicinal herb with the widely curative effects. Based on the measured results by using automatic surface area-porosity analyzer (at smaller scale ≤ 100nm), the volume fractal dimensions (DV) were estimated to characterize the pore size distribution inside matrix of samples dried by different drying technologies, including microwave drying at 200W and conventional hot air drying at 60 °C. In cases studied in this paper, the values of DV are well related with drying time. As compared to hot air dried sample, DV of microwave dried sample increases by 5.9% for Astragalus, while 7.7% for Chinese Angelica. In comparison with hot air drying, the microwave drying time is reduced to 1/6 (30min/180 min) for Astragalus, while 1/16 (50min/810min) for Chinese Angelica. Combined the observation of SEM images of sample, our findings is that, higher fractal dimension, less concentration of pore size distribution, better connectivity of pore or channel with multi-scale characteristics (aperture about 0.1μm–1μm, plasmodesma about 1nm–10nm, or 10Å–100Å), much loose distribution of cytoplasm inside parenchyma cells, better permeability of moisture transfer path during drying process, shorter drying time. Our results demonstrate that the volume fractal dimension (DV) of pore size distribution at smaller scale (≤ 100nm) could give a better understanding the mass transfer behavior of plant materials.

Author(s):  
Junhong Yang ◽  
Qianqian Di ◽  
Jun Zhao ◽  
Liqiu Wang

This paper studies the correlation between fractal dimension of matrix microstructure of plant materials and extraction behavior using Astragalus root slices as examples. This work compared the yield of extracts on the conventional solvent soaking extraction of samples irradiated 3min by microwave 600W and 900W, respectively. Regarding to microwave treated samples, the area fractal dimensions (DL) of aperture in shape were estimated by using the slit island method on the basis of SEM images analysis, the volume fractal dimensions (DV) of pore size distribution inside matrix were also determined by the mercury injection method on the basis of measured results (6nm–40×105nm) by automatic mercury injection apparatus. Our findings are that, 900W treated sample behaves higher yield of extracts than 600W. The values of DL and DV both increase with increasing of microwave power. The higher values of DL correspond to the much irregular and deformed shape of aperture, which seems un-benefit for the extraction of component inside matrix. However, the higher values of DV correspond to the less concentration of pore size distribution, implying better connectivity of pore or channel at multi-scale (including trachea 20μm–50μm, aperture 0.1μm–1μm and plasmodesma 1nm–10nm in size) and permeability inside matrix during extraction, higher yield of extracts. It demonstrates that combining the two fractal dimensions can present much more information for better understanding of mass transfer behavior and the knowledge of material properties.


Fractals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (08) ◽  
pp. 1950142
Author(s):  
JINZE XU ◽  
KELIU WU ◽  
RAN LI ◽  
ZANDONG LI ◽  
JING LI ◽  
...  

Effect of nanoscale pore size distribution (PSD) on shale gas production is one of the challenges to be addressed by the industry. An improved approach to study multi-scale real gas transport in fractal shale rocks is proposed to bridge nanoscale PSD and gas filed production. This approach is well validated with field tests. Results indicate the gas production is underestimated without considering a nanoscale PSD. A PSD with a larger fractal dimension in pore size and variance yields a higher fraction of large pores; this leads to a better gas transport capacity; this is owing to a higher free gas transport ratio. A PSD with a smaller fractal dimension yields a lower cumulative gas production; this is because a smaller fractal dimension results in the reduction of gas transport efficiency. With an increase in the fractal dimension in pore size and variance, an apparent permeability-shifting effect is less obvious, and the sensitivity of this effect to a nanoscale PSD is also impaired. Higher fractal dimensions and variances result in higher cumulative gas production and a lower sensitivity of gas production to a nanoscale PSD, which is due to a better gas transport efficiency. The shale apparent permeability-shifting effect to nanoscale is more sensitive to a nanoscale PSD under a higher initial reservoir pressure, which makes gas production more sensitive to a nanoscale PSD. The findings of this study can help to better understand the influence of a nanoscale PSD on gas flow capacity and gas production.


Author(s):  
Dat Q Tran

Dried vegetables are considered convenient for storage, transportation and preservation. The different drying techniques could influence the quality of resulting products. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of three distinguish drying methods as hot-air drying, foam-mat drying and microwave drying on the color retention and chlorophyll of green vegetables powder. Fresh spinach(Spinacia oleraceaL.), celery (Apium graveolensL.), Malabar spinach (Basella albaL.) were dried by different methods: hot air at 60oC, foam-mat at 60oC and microwave at 270 W until the samples reached approximately 9% of moisture content (wb). The drying time of the dried samples by microwave, foam-mat and hot-air method were 60, 210 and 240 min, respectively. Foam-mat dried vegetables were found to have the best quality in terms of color and the residual chlorophyll content. The findings suggest that foam-mat drying is promising in dried vegetable processing


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abinash Bal ◽  
Santanu Misra ◽  
Manab Mukherjee

<p>We investigated the nanopore structures of shale samples obtained from Cambay and Krishna-Godavari (KG) basins in India using low-pressure N<sub>2</sub> sorption method. The samples occurred at variable depths (1403-2574m and 2599-2987m for Cambay and KG basins, respectively) and have wide ranges of clay contents (56-90%) both in volume and mineralogy. The results of this study indicate the specific surface area (SSA) and pore diameters of the samples share a non-linear negative correlation. The SSA is a strong function of the clay content over the samples’ depth. The specific micropore volumes of the KG basin have relatively higher (8.29-24.4%) than the Cambay basin (0.1-3.6%), which leads to higher SSA in the KG basin. From different statistical thickness equations, the Harkins Jura equation was found to be most suitable for the computation of BJH pore size distribution and t-plot inversion in shale. Shale samples from Cambay basin show unimodal pore size distribution, with a modal diameter of 4-5nm, while in the KG basin, show bi-modal to multimodal pore size distribution, mostly ranges from 3-12 nm. In the fractal FHH method, fractal exponent D<sub>f</sub>-3 provides a better realistic result than fractal dimensions calculated from (D<sub>f</sub>-3)/3. In our samples, pore surface fractal dimension (D<sub>f1</sub>) show a positive correlation with SSA and a negative correlation with pore diameter, and pore structure fractal dimension (D<sub>f2</sub>) shows a negative correlation both with clay(%) and depth. The experimental data obtained in this study are instrumental in developing the pore-network model to assess the hydrocarbon reserve and recovery in shale.</p>


Author(s):  
Tarsem Chand Mittal ◽  
Sajeev Rattan Sharma ◽  
Jarnail Singh Muker ◽  
Satish Kumar Gupta

Button mushroom in the form of whole and slices were dried using convective hot air drying and microwave drying methods. Main objectives were to study the drying behavior and change in colour and textural properties. To get moisture content of 0.08 g/g, hot air drying at 600C took 463 minutes and 350 minutes for whole and sliced mushroom respectively whereas these times were just 9 minutes and 8.5 minutes when the microwave oven was run at 60% of its maximum power (1350 W). The convective hot air drying process can be put into two falling rate periods. The decrease in brightness (indicated by L-value) in dried samples was about 44% as compared to the fresh ones. The variation within the differently dried samples was not much. Hardness was lowest (<2>N) in fresh samples and was highest (>5.5 N) in microwave dried samples with hot air dried samples in between. For most of the samples, the springiness were between 0.4 and 0.6 except for hot air dried sliced samples where it was 0.9. Except in hot air dried samples, the change in cohesiveness was not much. Adhesiveness was found in fresh mushroom only..


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-248
Author(s):  
Gitanjali Behera ◽  
◽  
Mitali Madhumita ◽  
J. Aishwarya Aishwarya ◽  
V. Gayathri ◽  
...  

Carrot is most the important vegetable grown throughout the World. It is also a very good source of βcarotene, α-carotene and zeaxanthin. The post-harvest losses because of having high moisture content limit the utilization of carrot. In the present investigation, the comparative analysis was done between hot air drying and microwave drying for different thickness of carrot slices. The quality analysis for both the dried products was performed and compared. The drying time was varied between 3.5 h to 10 h for try drying whereas for microwave drying it was 240 sec to 681.6 sec. The drying time reduces drastically in case of microwave drying in comparison to hot air drying. The moisture ratio for both dried techniques was found to decreasing with an increase in drying time. The microwave dried samples showed a better rehydration ratio than the hot air dried sample. Also, the dehydration ratio of dried carrot sample using microwave drying was found to be lowest compared to the hot air dried sample. The microwave dried carrot slices showed a better sensory score in terms of colour and shape than hot air dried sample. Therefore, microwave drying may be recommended to dry carrot slices to have better energy efficiencies


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