Drying of Soybean Seeds in a Concurrent Moving Bed: Heat and Mass Transfer and Quality Analysis

The purpose of the present work is to study the simultaneous heat and mass transfer between air and soybean seeds in a concurrent moving bed dryer, based on the application of a two-phase model to the drying process. The numerical solution of the model is obtained by using a computational code based on BDF methods (Backwards Differentials Formulas). The experimental data of air humidity and temperature and of seed moisture content and temperature at the dryer outlet are compared to the simulated values, showing a good agreement. This work also analyzes the effect of the main process variables (drying air temperature, air relative humidity, air velocity and solids flow rate) on the soybean seeds quality during drying. Empirical equations fitted to the experimental data are proposed for predicting the soybean seed quality (germination, vigor and fissures) as a function of the investigated variables.