In the current study, response surface methodology was applied for modeling and optimizing exergetic performance of a conveyor infrared-hot air dryer for mushroom slices. Optimization factors were air recirculation percentage, air temperature and infrared power while investigating responses were drying time, exergetic efficiency, exergy loss and potential improvement. ANOVA results indicated that a second-order polynomial model predicted the experimental data properly. The statistical analysis expressed that the drying time decreased with increasing the air recirculationup to 50% and then increased with more increasing of air recycling percentage. Also, increasing the air recirculation percentage, drying temperature and infrared power improved the exergy efficiency. Optimization of the drying process parameters for the presented constraints resulted in 90 °C, 839.13 W, 90% air recirculation at 1 m/s air velocity. Also,the experimental validation demostrated thatthere is a high fitness between the predicted and experimental valuesbased onthe optimized combination of process parameters.
