Energy Consumption in Hot Air Drying of Soybean

The production of soybean requires that the product is collected healthy and in advance, to minimize losses caused by the attack in the field of insects, diseases and microorganisms. Therefore and due to high moisture content at harvest, drying is one of the operations of primary importance among the techniques involved in the conservation of desirable qualities of products of plant origin. Thermal dehydration is the most common and cost-effective technique for preservation of foods and for the production of traditional. In this research paper, the influence of several drying conditions on energy consumption in the drying of soybean is presented. Temperature levels of 50, 65 and 80 ˚C and the initial moisture content of 15, 18 and 21 % were used as the treatments. The air was heated by two electrical resistances with power of 800W, while the temperature was controlled with the aid of thermocouples connected to the drying equipment. The energy consumption for drying were in the range of 14.30- 33.20 (kW h) and Results show that energy consumption diminished when temperature increased at moisture, while it increased with increasing moisture due to high value of heat and mass transfer. The higher the temperature and lower moisture caused lower the total time of drying and lower energy consumption. It was observed that the drying air temperature presents significant influence on the process.

Keywords:

Hot air drying , Drying time , Energy consumption , Soybean