Desorption Isotherms and Isosteric Heat of Three Tunisian Date Cultivars

The sorption isotherm of three Tunisian cultivars, Allig, Kentichi, and Deglet Nour, were obtained at 40, 60 and 80 C. The static gravimetric method was used, according to the COST 90 recommendations. The overall shape of the curves describing the water content as a function of water activity was typical of sugar-rich materials. A difference between varieties exists for the sorption isotherm, thus for the drying behavior. Data were compared with respect to several isotherm models. It was found that the GAB and the BET equations could satisfactorily represent the sorption data up to about 0.9 relative humidity. Through the BET equation, monolayer moisture content was calculated for the isotherm zone corresponding to monomolecular adsorption. In addition, isosteric heat of sorption was determined from sorption data using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation.