Thermal and Energy Performance of a Modular-Airflow Air Fryer for Dehydration And Thawing

Abstract

Affordable postharvest processing equipment requires careful management of heat and airflow, particularly when electrical capacity is limited. This study assessed the thermal and energy performance of a compact modular-airflow food-processing chamber and examined its application to fruit dehydration and frozen-meat thawing. A 15.6 L insulated chamber used incandescent heaters rated at 60, 100, and 150 W and interchangeable recirculation, exhaust, and ambient-air intake modules. The no-load thermal experiment followed a 3 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of heating power, airflow mode (recirculation or exhaust), and one or two active fan modules, with three replicates per condition. Temperature, stabilization time, and 15-min electrical consumption were evaluated; fruit dehydration and meat thawing were reported descriptively. Recirculation maintained higher chamber temperatures than exhaust operation. Using two recirculation modules reduced the reported apparent vertical temperature difference by approximately 53–62% compared with one module. Electrical use during the no-load tests ranged from 15.53 to 38.57 Wh. In the fruit trials, the 150 W two-module exhaust treatment produced the highest recorded gravimetric mass losses, 69.0% for citrus and 67.6% for strawberry, with specific energy consumption of 2.29 and 2.34 Wh per gram of removed mass, respectively. Two-module ambient-air intake shortened the observed thawing endpoint at 60 and 100 W. These findings indicate that interchangeable airflow arrangements can support distinct thermal-processing tasks within one small chamber, although further product-quality and airflow measurements are needed before broader performance claims can be made.