Corn grains drying using direct-fired furnace with wood chips: Performance, quality and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the drying performance, the quality of the corn grain and the contamination by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) using a direct-fired furnace fed automatically by wood chips. Samples were collected at five-minute intervals, 12 samples before drying and 12 samples after drying. The following experimental evaluations were carried out: dryer – performance and fuel consumption; grains – moisture content, germination, electrical conductivity, apparent specific mass, mass of a thousand grains, color and PAHs. The dryer showed an average efficiency of 83.61%. The average consumption of wood chips was 0.3932 kg of chips per kilogram of evaporated water. Differences were observed in the grains after drying for the characteristics of mass of a thousand grains, apparent specific mass, germination and electrical conductivity. The average concentrations of PAHs in corn grains were higher than the maximum values ​​allowed by the European Union legislation.

Keywords:
food security; PAHs; renewable energy; Zea mays L