AbstractIn recent years, hot air-drying coupled with ultrasonic technique or intermittent method is widely applied in food drying owing to significantly improving drying properties. The objective of this paper was to study the effect of drying temperature, ultrasonic power and intermittent method on drying kinetics, seed vitality and energy consumption of pea seed. The single factor tests were performed with air temperature of 28, 32, 36, and 40 °C, using ultrasound at four power levels of 60, 100, 150, and 200 W, and intermittent drying with intermittent ratios of 1, 1/2, 1/3 and middle intermittence. The orthogonal experiments of three factors with three levels were conducted based on the results of single factor test. Results indicated that drying temperature, ultrasonic power and drying method all had significant effects on drying kinetics, germination percentage (GP), mean germination time (MGT) and germination index (GI) (P < 0.05), and application of intermittent drying method can greatly reduce energy consumption. Further, from the orthogonal experiment, the greatest impact on the comprehensive evaluation index of seed drying was intermittent method, followed by drying temperature and the least was ultrasonic power. The optimum drying parameters of pea seed were drying temperature of 36°C, ultrasonic power of 200 W, and drying method of intermittent ratio 1/2, which were obtained by range analysis in the scope of this experiment.
Consideration of Energy Consumption and Energy Efficiency in Mechanized Rice Production System by using Inventory Analysis