Isothermal Drying Kinetic of Sengon Wood (Paraserianthes Falcataria) Using Combined Infrared and Hotair: Experimental and Modeling Study

Sengon wood beams are widely used as a wood packaging material. According to the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM), wood packaging materials must be pests-free. One method for eliminating problems with wood is by heat treatment or drying. This research aims to determine the kinetics of isothermal drying of sengon wood blocks using a combination of infrared and hot air heating. The drying process is carried out at temperatures of 70, 80 and 90 degrees C, air velocity of 1, 2 and 3 m/s until the final moisture content of the wood reaches 19%. The experimental data were fitted to four drying models, and analyzed using non-linear regression to determine the most suitable model and evaluated through the coefficient of determination (R2), chi-square (X2), and root mean square error (RMSE). The research results revealed that the temperature of the wood core reached 56 oC the fastest at a temperature of 90 oC and an air velocity of 3 m/s in 45 minutes. The highest R2 coefficient 0.9998 is found on the model page at a drying temperature of 70 degrees C and an air velocity of 3 m/s with the lowest X, RMSE values of 0.00001 and 0.0025 respectively. The effective moisture diffusivity of sengon wood particles increased from 1.80x10-6 to 2.47x10-6 m2/min due to the increase in temperature treatment from 70 to 90 degrees C. The largest diffusion activation energy at an air velocity of 3 m/s is 23.92 kJ/mol.