Mass Transfer Characteristics During Vacuum Impregnation Process of Papaya Fruit in Sucrose Solution

Vacuum impregnation (VI) is a technique to introduce a solution into the porous medium through hydrodynamic mechanism induced by changes in pressure. The research aimed to study the mass transfer characteristics of the VI processes at different pressures on papaya. Cuboid papaya fruit sized 60 x 30 x 10 mm was placed in a solution of sucrose 30%, and impregnated at pressure of 50, 40, and 30 mBar, and atmospheric pressure as a control, for 5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes. Data showed that the VI treatment of papaya fruits in sucrose solution have higher value of coefficient mass transfer of sucrose than osmosis dehydration treatment, ranged between 10.4-37.11/m2h for VI and 7.85-15.319/m2h for osmosis dehydration. The coefficient mass transfer ofwater ranged from 12.264–15.267/m2h on osmotic dehydration and 0.612-12.317/m2h on treatment of vacuum imregnation of 40 and 50 mBar, whereas the treatment pressure of 30 mBar, there was the addition of a water content by coefficient of -1.732-9.8/m2h.