Effect of Velocity and Temperature On the Drying Rate of Sweet Corn Kernels By Using Fluidized Bed Technique

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to investigate the factors consisted of a temperature and velocity of air flow affected corn grain (In-see 2) drying by using fluidized bed technique. The fluidized bed dryer size of 20 cm diameter and 100 cm height was designed and constructed for this experiment. The heater and blower size of 5 kW, 1.25 kW was used for heating air at the static pressure of 1,300 Pa. A cyclone size of 24 cm diameter and 122 cm height was used to separate the product from air. The galvanized steel pipe size of 10.16 cm (4 inch) diameter was used as air circulating pipe. The corn grain size of 300 g was used for each experiment. The initial moisture in this experiment was 500 % d.b.. The drying temperature conditions were controlled at 70 ^๐C, 80 ^๐C and 90 ^๐C. The air velocity conditions in bed were controlled at 5.5 m/s, 6.5 m/s and 7.5 m/s. The final moisture of corn was 14-16 % d.b..

          From the result, it was found that the drying temperature was increased the also drying rate and specific moisture extraction rate trend to increase. The highest drying rate was 0.294 kg-water/hr that was occurred at the 7.5 m/s air velocity and 90 ^๐C drying temperature. The highest specific moisture extraction rate was 0.06 kg-water/kW-hr that was occurred at the 7.5 m/s air velocity and 70 ^๐C drying temperature.