Designing a drying process for oak acorns focused on energy usage and the quality characteristics of the final product

Designing a drying process for oak acorns focused on energy usage and the quality characteristics of the final product | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Designing a drying process for oak acorns focused on energy usage and the quality characteristics of the final product Sadegh Seyedlou, Habibeh Nalbandi, Ali Karami, Farid Bejaee This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8005649/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 8 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Any changes in the process pattern should consider the amount of energy consumption, process time, and product quality because they have an impact on the price of the final product. In this research, drying process of acorn was studied. The whole acorn takes longer to dry due to its hard shell and low moisture diffusivity, which leads to an increase in energy consumption; the shell's adhesion to the kernel makes it difficult to remove shell from the moist acorn. Therefore, three processing methods were examined: one-stage drying (drying whole acorn), two-stage drying (short-term drying of whole acorn, peeling and re-drying of kernel), and roasting-drying (initial roasting of whole acorn, peeling and drying of kernel), with the aim of decreasing drying time and energy consumption. The results indicated that the roasting-drying method had a 61% lower energy consumption than the one-step drying method. This method led to less quality changes in the final product, including color changes, shrinkage, and true density. Using 80°C as a critical temperature resulted in the highest moisture diffusion in the acorn. Therefore, the best process pattern for drying the valuable acorn product is roasting-drying at 80°C. Physical sciences/Engineering Physical sciences/Materials science Acorn Energy Peeling Processing Quality Roasting Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 20 Mar, 2026 Reviews received at journal 10 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Nov, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 10 Nov, 2025 Editor invited by journal 10 Nov, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 04 Nov, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 04 Nov, 2025 First submitted to journal 01 Nov, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8005649","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":544859265,"identity":"863870dc-4f1d-4eff-b8e8-f3794a45e2bb","order_by":0,"name":"Sadegh Seyedlou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Tabriz","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sadegh","middleName":"","lastName":"Seyedlou","suffix":""},{"id":544859266,"identity":"dc4fcdfa-a4bb-4a4e-a356-2b191b39759b","order_by":1,"name":"Habibeh 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