TITLE:
Water Diffusion Coefficients of Selected Legumes Grown in Ghana as Affected by Temperature and Variety
AUTHORS:
Isaac Godfred Antwi, Ahmad Addo, Ato Bart-Plange
KEYWORDS:
Soybean, Cowpea, Water Absorption, Arrhenius-Type Equation, Diffusion Coefficient
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.11 No.8,
August
12,
2021
ABSTRACT: The water absorption kinetics of cowpea and
soybean hybrids were studied following the phenomenological models derived from
Fick’s diffusion law. Significant intra and inter varietal variations were
observed on the physical characteristics of the seeds. The proposed Fick’s law
of diffusion was shown to significantly describe the kinetic of water
absorption irrespective of the variety and temperature. The effective
diffusivities of the hybrids were shown to vary in the order Nagbaar >
Nhyira > Tonaa > Anidaso and increased as the soaking temperature
increased from 30d°C to 60d°C. The estimated values for water diffusion
coefficients varied from 2.90 × 10-10 to 6.75 × 10-10 m2/s for cowpea and soybean hybrids. An Arrhenius-type equation
described the strong temperature effect on the diffusion coefficient with
activation energies ranging from 7.73 to 8.56 kJ/mol for cowpeas and 5.51 to
8.14 kJ/mol for soybeans.