MASS-TRANSFER IN CELLULAR TISSUES .2. COMPUTER-SIMULATIONS VS EXPERIMENTAL-DATA

The kinetics of equilibration of potato tissue with sucrose solutions was studied. The model developed in a companion paper and based on the internal cellular structure of the plant material was found to be a powerful tool to monitor the changes that occur in the potato tissue, and helps in understanding the phenomena involved in the osmotic process. The proposed model was able to represent the mass transport phenomena successfully. This conclusion relies on the observed good agreement between the predicted and the experimental sucrose and water contents of potato slices. From the results of the simulations, it seems that the water permeability coefficient is dependent on the boundary layers that exist at the surface of the plasmalemma membrane. This study has also shown that it is not possible to obtain a good agreement between predicted and experimental data for sucrose content in potato tissue considering only the diffusion phenomenon.