Hydration of grain kernels and its effect on drying

Different hydration methods have been considered and their effect on the drying characteristics of corn and amaranth grains have been studied at different drying temperatures and the results compared with those for the fresh materials. The effect of hydration on drying was found to depend on the type of grain. In general, for corn hydrated grain particles the moisture content was found to be in a looser condition than it was in the fresh grains, and hence, smaller effective diffusion coefficients where found for the latter. Such differences were found to increase with increasing drying temperature. Also a first-order irreversible kinetic model was applied to the drying data for hydrated and fresh corn and a reduction on the drying activation energy was observed by the humidification process. In contrast, for the relatively small amaranth grains, both hydrated and fresh particles showed similar drying characteristics. The results suggest that drying kinetics and transport properties obtained for rehydrated grains can overestimate drying rates for the corresponding freshly harvested material, especially at relatively high moisture contents and for relatively large grain particles like corn.