STUDY OF FLAXSEED DRYING PROCESS IN FLUIDIZED AND SPOUTED BED

Abstract

The drying process is one of the most used unit operations in the chemical, food and agricultural industries. Bed drying has gained a great deal of attention in industrial processes due to some advantages such as large area of ??contact between the solid and the drying fluid and high rates of heat and mass transfer. This work aimed to study the kinetics of the drying process of flaxseed in two systems: fluidized bed and spouted bed, at temperatures of 30, 40, 50 and 60 ºC. The drying process was carried out with a velocity equivalent to 1,567 m/s, in the fluidized bed, and in the spouted bed, it was worked with 3,318 m/s. The system that presented the best efficiency in relation to the energy expenditure was the fluidized bed, whereas in relation to the time the spouted bed with the cone inclination of 45º was the best. Among the studied temperatures, drying at 60ºC presented a lower energy and time expenditure, when the objective was to reach 8% of moisture content.