Assessment of Drying Temperature and Initial Moisture on Beans and Corn Seeds Drying Kinetics and Transport Properties

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the drying temperature and initial moisture content on beans and corn seeds drying kinetics and transport properties. It was verified that the best empirical lumped models fitting whereas obtained by Approximation of Diffusion and Hii, Law and Cloke models. This was expected because the fitting tends to improve as the model has more parameters. However, despite having only two parameters, the Page model showed good fitting in all conditions analyzed, therefore, this generalized model could predict experimental data with a maximum global deviation of around 10.0 %. The distributed parameter model assessed moisture content distribution inside the grain, which could predict experimental data with an overall deviation of around 10.0 %. Results indicated that both drying temperature and initial moisture have a significant influence on drying rates and mass transfer coefficients and verified that it is not advisable to neglect the influence of the initial moisture content and its distribution along the position inside the material for beans and corn seeds drying studies.