Fluidized Bed Drying of Corn, Bean and Chickpea

Abstract

In the agricultural industry, drying is a very important process to preserve food products. Also, fluidized bed drying is the most common preferred process due to its advantages. In this paper, the effects of the fluidizing air temperature and velocity on the drying performance of corn, beans and chickpeas were investigated by carrying out a series of tests. Laboratory‐scaled fluidized bed drying apparatus was used. Batch drying experiments were conducted by applying three different air temperature and two different air velocities. In addition, the Henderson and Pabis model was used to compare experimental and model results. Lastly, activation energy values were determined for the particles. Results revealed that the drying air temperature has the greatest effect on the drying kinetics of particles, whereas air velocity has a small effect. It was also observed that bean, corn and chickpea particles have different drying curves during the drying period (5,400 s). Mean absolute errors, root mean square errors and mean absolute percentage error were used as performance criterion between experimental and model results. The activation energy values of the particles showed the same pace as similar studies in the literature. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Drying is energy‐intensive and has a negative environmental impact due to fact that most of the thermal energy needed is obtained by combusting fossil fuels. From 12–25% of national industrial energy consumption is attributed to thermal dehydration in industrial nations. As global economies prosper, the demand for energy for drying will increase. Thus, there is need to understand this operation well and to ensure that it is carried out as efficiently as possible within the economic constraints of the market. It is also important to keep abreast with the current drying technologies, as well as the emerging new ones. The drying of various feedstocks is needed for one or several of the following reasons: need for easy‐to‐handle free‐flowing solids, preservation and storage, reduction in cost of transportation, achieving desired quality of product, etc. In many processes, improper drying may lead to irreversible damage to product quality, and hence a nonsalable product.

Assessment of the initial moisture content on soybean drying kinetics and transport properties

“…Many authors [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] have observed in agricultural products the absence of constant drying rate stage as well as a decrease on this rate value starting from the initial drying process. These results indicate that the material surface is not initially saturated with water, and the rate of internal moisture movement controls the drying rate during most of the process [13] .…”

“…Several studies have also revealed that air temperature has strong influence on drying rates enhancing their values [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,15,16,17,18] . However, drying processes at high temperatures can deteriorate the product quality by increasing temperature and moisture gradient leading to internal tensions, cracks, breakages, and fractures in the grain [16] .…”

“…In addition, it was indicated that the impact of air velocity on drying rates is lower compared with the influence of air temperature [4,6,12,17] . These studies have results indicating that the higher the air velocity the higher the drying rate levels.…”

Functionality and Palatability of Yogurt Produced Using Beetroot Pomace Flour Granulated with Lactic Acid Bacteria

“…Fluidized bed granulation is often a method of choice for drying heat-sensitive compounds, including microbial cultures. Advantages, such as good temperature control, equal temperature distribution, high drying capacity, short drying time, low maintenance costs, and large-scale production, are noticeable [15][16][17][18]. To minimize the damage caused by drying and to achieve increased bacterial viability in storage time, fluidized bed immobilization of LAB is mainly performed in the presence of protective carbohydrates [15].…”

Free Fatty Acid Deformation of Treated Black Glutinous Rice During Storage by Fluidization Drying

“…In contrast, the sample that was not treated contained 2–8 times the FFA content of the treated sample, depending on the heating temperature and period. Drying black glutinous rice by the high temperature fluidization technique efficiently reduced the moisture of the paddy after harvest and could likely be applied to inactivate the lipase enzyme before storage because of the high temperature (Chandrasekhar and Chattopadhyay ; Soponronnarit and Prachayawarakorn ; Cil and Topuz ). Up until the present, data on the change in the FFA content during storage of black glutinous rice dried by the fluidization technique had not been reported.…”