Fluidized bed drying of corn, bean and chickpea

In the agricultural industry, drying is a very important process to preserve food products. Also, fluidized bed drying is the most common preferred process due to its advantages. In this paper, the effects of the fluidizing air temperature and velocity on the drying performance of corn, beans and chickpeas were investigated by carrying out a series of tests. Laboratory-scaled fluidized bed drying apparatus was used. Batch drying experiments were conducted by applying three different air temperature and two different air velocities. In addition, the Henderson and Pabis model was used to compare experimental and model results. Lastly, activation energy values were determined for the particles. Results revealed that the drying air temperature has the greatest effect on the drying kinetics of particles, whereas air velocity has a small effect. It was also observed that bean, corn and chickpea particles have different drying curves during the drying period (5,400 s). Mean absolute errors, root mean square errors and mean absolute percentage error were used as performance criterion between experimental and model results. The activation energy values of the particles showed the same pace as similar studies in the literature. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc