Producing non-traditional flour from watermelon rind pomace: Artificial neural network (ANN) modeling of the drying process.

An artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to simulate the convective drying process of watermelon rind pomace used in the fabrication of non-traditional flour. Also, the drying curves obtained experimentally were fitted with eleven different empirical models to compare both modeling approaches. Lastly, to reduce the required fossil fuel in the convective drying process, two types of solar air heaters (SAH) were presented and experimentally evaluated.