원형철제빈용 벼 자동흡습장치 개발에 관한 연구(I) -벼의 흡습특성-

Development of Automatic Rewetting System for Rough Rice Stored in Round Steel Bin with Stirring Device -Adsorption characteristics of rough rice-

Milling the rice with low moisture requires more energy, produces more cracked rice, and results in reducing taste of cooked rice. Accordingly, it is necessary to add moisture to the rice with low moisture to obtain optimum moisture level for milling and taste of rice. This study was performed to evaluate the influence of initial moisture content and absorption rate on rice crack, milling energy and whiteness of milled rice and to obtain the information for design of rewetting system mounted on stirring device in grain bin. The tests were conducted for the four levels of initial moisture content in the range of 11.4 to 14.5%(w.b.) and six levels of absorption rate in the range of 0.04 to 1.0%, w.b./hr. In the case of lower moisture content below 12%(w.b.), crack ratios of brown rice were remarkably high regardless of initial moisture contents. Therefore, it was found that rough rice below 12%(w.b.) in initial moisture content could not rewetted by spraying water without crack generation of low level. Absorption rate must be below 0.3%, w.b./hr to maintain crack ratio increase of less than 1% regardless of initial moisture contents. In the case of allowable crack ratio increase of 2% and 5%, it was found that the maximum absorprion rate was respectively 0.6%, w.b./hr and 1.0%, w.b./hr in the initial moisture content of above 13.5%(w.b.). Rewetting the rough rice in moisture content of 11.4 to 14.5%(w.b.) to 14.3 to 16.9%(w.b.) decreased milling energy consumption by 15.9 to 22.3%. The effect of energy saving was higher in the samples of higher initial moisture content. Whiteness of milled rice was decreased by 0.5 to 1.5.