An Experimental Study on Degradation of Maize Starch During Pneumatic Transportation

Although attrition during pneumatic conveying is a common problem, very few publications can be found in the open literature on this subject. The particle-to-wall impact is perhaps the predominant cause of degradation since the particle impinges the wall surface at high velocities in dilute phase pneumatic conveying. The most important factors appear to be the conveying air velocity and moisture content. This article presents the experimental findings of a study on degradation of maize starch during pneumatic conveying process. The tests were carried out in a conveying setup having a pipe length of approximately 50 m and a pipe inner diameter of 50 mm in order to find out the breakage of particles under various airflow velocity conditions and temperatures. Dehumidified air was used during the experimentation, and the air temperatures used during these test were 100°C and 25°C. The experimental results indicated that for a given air temperature condition, the variation of attrition rate was a complex function of air velocity and solids loading ratio. Further, for any start pressure condition, the attrition rate was found to increase substantially with increase in air temperature.