Modeling calcium and water intake in threshed corn grain during thermo-alkaline treatment

A mathematical model describing simultaneous solvent diffusion and gelatinization of starch was used to explain the water and calcium absorption in threshed corn grains during the thermo-alkaline treatment. A computer-aided nonlinear optimization technique was used to find the effective diffusion coefficients and the reaction rate constants of water and calcium in threshed corn grains at boiling temperature (92.5 ± 0.3 °C). The mathematical model shows good correlation between measured and predicted values of water and calcium intake. It is concluded that the cooking process is limited by the reaction of starch components with water and calcium. The effective diffusion coefficient for water varied between 1.18 × 10⁻¹⁰ and 1.45 × 10⁻¹⁰ m²/s and for calcium between 8.55 × 10⁻¹⁰and 16.77 × 10⁻¹⁰ m²/s. The diffusion of water and calcium in threshed corn was produced with a reaction rate constants in the range of 6.83 × 10⁻⁴ to 10.4 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ for water and 2.7 × 10⁻⁵–7.6 × 10⁻⁵ s⁻¹ for calcium. According to these effective diffusion coefficient values the diffusive process seems to be slower for water than for calcium. However, the reaction rate constant values are approximately 10 times higher for water than for calcium which may indicate that a higher amount of solvent was linked in the water diffusion process due to the gelatinization. Low concentration of Ca(OH)₂ such as 0.10% did not significantly affect the water diffusion of threshed corn during the cooking process.     

Manufacture of Syntactic Foams: Pre-Mold Processing

Manufacturing processes for syntactic foams made of hollow microspheres and starch were studied. Various manufacturing parameters in relation to the “buoyancy method” were identified and inter-related. An equation based on unit-cell models with the minimum inter-microsphere distance concept for a relation between volume expansion rate of bulk microspheres in aqueous starch and microsphere size was derived and successfully used to predict experimental data. It was demonstrated that the inter-microsphere distance can be calculated numerically for microspheres with known statistical data. The equation relating between volume expansion rate and microsphere size was further extended to accommodate a relation between inter-microsphere distance and microsphere size but with limited accuracy for binders of low starch content. An alternative empirical linear equation for the relation between inter-microsphere distance and microsphere size is proposed for wider applications. A simple method for estimation of syntactic foam density prior to completion of manufacture is suggested. Shrinkage after molding of syntactic foam is discussed in relation with different stages such as slurry, dough and solid. A two-step manufacturing process involving molding and then forming is suggested for syntactic foam dimensional control.     

Characterization of gelatinized corn starch suspensions and resulting drop size distributions after effervescent atomization

Effervescent atomization is a promising method for economical atomization of high viscous liquids like gelatinized corn starch suspensions. The gelatinization of starch has strong influence on the viscosity of starch suspensions. It was characterized adapting a method for determination of the gelatinization degree. Rheological properties of gelatinized corn starch suspensions with concentrations ranging from 5 to 7 wt.-% were investigated. Effervescent atomization proved to be largely invariant to variations of liquid viscosity in this range. Relative gas injection pressure proved to be of highest influence on the resulting drop size distribution when varying only atomizer geometry. Applying Abel inversion to drop size measurement results depicted the opposite trend of drop sizes depending on radial position in the spray than observed by other researchers working with aqueous glass bead suspensions. Compared to conventional external mixing pneumatic atomization a reduction of atomization gas quantity of up to four times could be achieved.     

The physicochemical properties and in vitro digestibility of selected cereals,tubers and legumes grown in China

Digestibility, gelatinization, retrogradation and pasting properties of starch in various cereal, tuber and legume flours were determined. Rapidly and slowly digestible starch and resistant starch were present in 11 selected flours. In general, cereal starches were more digestible than legume starches and tuber starches contained a high amount of resistant starch. Thermal and rheological properties of flours were different depending on the crop source.     

Composition, soaking, cooking properties and thermal characteristics of starch of chickpeas, wrinkled peas and smooth peas

We investigated both the distribution of protein, ash and starch in legume (chickpeas, smooth and wrinkled peas) cotyledons, and the soaking and cooking characteristics, including gelatinization and retrogradation, of the starch. There were large differences in composition between different types of legumes and also between the outer and inner parts of legume cotyledons. Wrinkled peas exhibited much higher water absorption during prolonged soaking and there were higher hardness value determined for cooked seeds compared with chickpeas and smooth peas. While the hardness of cooked seeds decreased continuously as cooking time increased to 110 min, all legume starch was fully gelatinized after cooking for 70 min.     

A comparison of the hydrolysis of sweet potato starch with β-amylase and infrared radiation allows prediction of reducing sugar production

The apparent reaction rate constants (k) of the reaction that generates reducing sugar (presented as mg maltose equivalents) from raw sweet potato starch by using β‐amylase were determined by varying enzyme concentration, starch concentration and pH. The Arrhenius plot of the k‐value reached a peak at approximately 86 °C; the activation energy and frequency factor were also determined. Moreover, the amount of reducing sugar produced in sweet potato heated by infrared irradiation was estimated by using the values of k and the kinetic parameters. The calculated amounts of reducing sugar produced generally agreed with the experimental values. These results indicate that the amount of reducing sugar produced in heat‐treated sweet potato can be predicted by the methodology described in this study.     

Characteristics of Rice Dried in Superheated-Steam Fluidized-Bed

Characteristic properties of rice in a superheated-steam fluidized-bed dryer have been investigated using RVA, DSC, and SEM. The experimental results have shown that the reduction in moisture content from 41-42.5 to 25% d.b. using steam temperatures of 150-170°C was initially linear with drying time followed by the exponential decay when the moisture content was below 25% d.b. During the latter period, the water transport was controlled by the internal diffusion. Condensation of steam, along with the use of high temperature, enabled the development of gel layer as obvious from SEM. The formed gel layer caused the very low effective diffusivity when compared with the case of no gel formation in paddy kernel. The pasting properties and DSC measurements have shown that paddy dried at a higher temperature and a thinner bed depth provided a greater extent of gelatinization during the drying time, the first factor showing a profound effect. Kinetics of gelatinization is reasonably described by the zero-order reaction. For the paddy quality, the head rice yield was 70% higher than the reference value and color of white rice became yellow and low luminous after reducing moisture content to 18% d.b. The percentage of white belly was less than 1.5%.