Appropriate Operating Parameters for Fluidized Bed Corn Drying

Abstract

A commercial scale fluidized bed paddy dryer was modified for corn drying. The performance of this dryer and the effects of operating parameters on energy consumption were investigated. The experimental results clearly showed that fluidized bed dryer was effective for corn drying at high initial moisture content. The quality after drying in term of breakage and stress cracking of corn kernels was still maintained at the following conditions: reducing moisture content from 18 % - 23% dry-basis to 16 % - 19 % dry-basis and from higher than 28% dry-basis to 19 % - 30 % dry-basis using inlet hot air temperature of 130 – 175 . The simulated results indicated that both inlet hot air temperature and bed depth affected drying-kinetics of corn in fluidized bed dryer. However, for energy consumption, it was affected by bed depth, inlet hot air temperature, feed rate and fraction of air recycled. The optimum condition for corn drying was as follows: bed depth of 17 cm, inlet hot air temperature of 170 and fraction of air recycled of 0.8-0.9.