Análise experimental do comportamento fluidodinâmico e da secagem de sementes de linhaça (Linum usitatissimum L.) em leito de jorro

Abstract

Flaxseed is the seed of the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum L.) is polymorphic native flax, and is considered one of the six plants currently recognized by the National Cancer Institute of the United States (U.S. National Cancer Institute - NCI) for their properties specific anti-cancer. Part of this recognition should be the remarkable characteristic of being the richest source of lignin precursors (vegetable steroid action analogous to the mammalian estrogen) in the human diet. The variety used in this work was the "Linseed" brown and objective of this study was to analyze the fluid-dynamics of spouted bed. The fluid-dynamics was defined by the measurements of the bed pressure drop as a function of the flow rate for different seeds loads, so getting information to determine parameters related to the process, such as: minimum spouting velocity, maximum pressure drop, stable spout pressure drop and minimum spouted pressure drop. These values were compared with the values obtained by empirical equations found in the literature. It was also studied the drying of raw material, through a full factorial design 22 with com three central point and the statistical analysis of the results were realized and the effects of independent variables spouting air temperature (Tg) and time (t) on the responses humidity ratio (Xr, adim.), germination (G, %) and germination speed index (GSI, t-1) were evaluated. The optimal operational point was determined as function of the entrance variables applying the concept of global desirability. The kinetics of drying was performed at temperatures of 45, 55 and 65 °C, and the Midilli et al. model showed the best fitting to the experimental data. For the fluid-dynamic parameters showed that the correlation of Gorshtein and Mukhlenov (1965) showed the lowest deviations for minimum spouted pressure drop and pressure drop in the steady spouted, Abdelrazek (1969) showed the smallest deviation to the minimum spouting velocity and Pallai and Németh (1969) described adequately the maximum pressure drop. It was observed that the mass of seeds processed and air-spouted temperature exerted a significant influence on fluid-dynamic. Based on the statistical analysis of experimental noticed that all variable Tg e t are statistically significant for the responses: humidity ratio, germination and germination speed index, proposing models representative of these parameters with the presence of curvature, obtaining the coefficient of determination (R2) greater than 99 %.