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Research Paper

Drying process optimisation in a mixed-flow batch

grain dryer

Heikki T. Jokiniemi*, Jukka M. Ahokas

Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Koetilantie 5, P.O. Box 28, FI-00014 University of
Helsinki, Finland

article info
Article history:
Received 9 September 2013
Received in revised form
16 December 2013
Accepted 14 January 2014
Published online 10 February 2014
One of the most energy intense operations in arable farming in temperate countries is
grain drying. Several studies have indicated that using higher drying air temperatures of-
fers opportunities to save energy during grain drying, but although to a certain extent grain
can tolerate drying at higher air temperatures, this may compromise the viability of the
grain. The aim of this study was to examine the energy saving approaches achieved by
using an elevated drying air temperature and by manipulating drying airflow in a scaled-
down mixed-flow batch grain dryer. The drying airflow was reduced gradually as the
drying process proceeded, and the drying air temperature was allowed to rise. The relative
humidity of the exhaust air was used as a control factor to adjust the airflow. Energy
savings were expected from the higher drying air temperature and, due to the reduced
airflow, from the higher exhaust air humidity. The results showed energy savings of 5% for
drying barley and 14% for drying oats. Increases in the evaporation rate of 5% and 17%, for
barley and oats respectively. However, some degradation in grain viability was observed
especially with oats. Further research is needed to find the correct control parameters and
temperature limits for each cereal species.
ª 2014 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

indirect inputs such as fertilisers, seeds etc.). In poor harvest

1. Introduction
Energy efficiency in agriculture is currently undergoing
intensive research as a result of setting energy saving objec-
tives in all industry sectors. According to directive 2012/27/EU,
member states have an obligation to achieve 20% savings in
primary energy consumption by the year 2020, compared to
the projections made in 2007 (European Union, 2012). In
temperate countries one of the most energy intensive opera-
tions in arable farming is grain drying. For example in barley
production in Finland, drying represents almost 30% of direct
energy inputs and 11% of total energy consumption (including
conditions grain drying may consume as much energy as all
the field operations added together (Mikkola & Ahokas, 2009).
Typical energy consumption of a hot air grain dryer is
4e8 MJ (1.1e2.2 kWh) per kilogram of evaporated water
(Nellist, 1987; Peltola, 1985; Suomi, Lötjonen, Mikkola, Kirkkari,
& Palva, 2003). However, much lower energy consumption
figures have also been reported. Brinker and Johnson (2010)
reported an energy consumption of 2.5 MJ kg
1 for mixed-
flow and 4.4 MJ kg
1 for cross-flow dryers in their study of
grain dryers in Wisconsin.
Drying as a grain preservation method remains the method
of choice due to its proven technology, reliability and

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ358 40 779 5837.

E-mail addresses: tapani.jokiniemi@helsinki.fi (H.T. Jokiniemi), jukka.ahokas@helsinki.fi (J.M. Ahokas).
1537-5110/$ e see front matter ª 2014 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2014.01.002
210 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0

Nomenclature PE electric power, kW

PH heating power applied to the drying air, kW
a molar mass of water
ps saturated water vapour pressure, Pa
b molar mass of air
pw partial pressure of water vapour, Pa
C grain dependent coefficient
qm air mass flow, kg h
1
ca air specific heat capacity, kJ kg
1 K
1
Qspec specific energy consumption, kWh kg
1 [water]
cv water vapour specific heat capacity, kJ kg
1
qV air volumetric flow, m3 h
1
Dx water evaporation rate, kg h
1
R ideal gas constant, J mol
1 K
1
E grain dependent coefficient
RH relative humidity, %
F grain dependent coefficient
t time, min
H specific enthalpy of air, kJ kg
1
T temperature,  C or K
I electric current, A
T0 273.15 K
k grain dependent coefficient
U electric grid voltage, V
lv water heat of evaporation, kJ kg
1
x specific humidity, kg [water] kg
1 [air]
M moisture content, decimal (d. b.)
xin specific humidity of intake air, kg [water] kg
1 [air]
M0 initial moisture content, decimal (d. b.)
xout specific humidity of exhaust air, kg [water] kg
1
Ma air molar mass, kg mol
1
[air]
ma mass of air, kg
r air density, kg m
3
Me equilibrium moisture content, decimal (d. b.)
MR moisture ratio, decimal Abbreviations
n grain dependent coefficient d. b. dry basis
P power (heat or electric), kW w.b. wet basis
pa ambient air pressure, Pa

flexibility. In Finland it is used for 85e90% of harvested cereal
yield (Palva et al., 2005). In addition to the high energy con-
sumption, the grain drying step can be a bottleneck in the
harvest production chain, reducing the performance of the
whole harvest system.
Several studies have indicated that one possible method to
reduce energy consumption in grain drying is by using higher
drying air temperatures (Ahokas & Koivisto, 1983; Morey, Cloud,
& Lueschen, 1976; Suomi et al., 2003). Moist air equilibrium
equations indicate that air water binding capacity increases
faster than its enthalpy as temperature rises. This results in
added heat energy increasing the air water binding capacity
more at higher temperatures than at lower temperatures. Table
1 presents data on the effect of drying air temperature to the
process parameters in the adiabatic drying process.
The benefits achieved by the elevated drying air tempera-
tures also depend on the ambient air temperature and relative
humidity (RH) of the dryer exhaust air. The data in Table 1 was
obtained for an ambient air temperature of 15  C. As ambient
temperatures rise, the received benefits decrease as the need for
additional heat decreases. Furthermore, the RH of the dryer
exhaust air in Table 1 is 100%, which indicates that the exhaust
air was fully saturated. In practice the dryer exhaust air
humidity is high (close to 100%) at the beginning and decreases
towards the end of the process, as the grain gets dryer.
Decreased exhaust air humidity produces a further advantage
of an elevated drying air temperature. Figure 1 shows the effect
of dryer exhaust air humidity on the specific energy consump-
tion of the adiabatic drying process with different drying air
temperatures. It is evident from Fig. 1 that the greatest benefit
from an elevated drying air temperature is obtained at the end
of the drying process, where the exhaust air humidity is low.
In a practical drying process the drying air humidity and
temperature constantly change when the air passes through
the grain. Thus, the drying is often examined as a thin-layer
drying process, in which individual whole grains are consid-
ered to be fully exposed to the drying air (Henderson, Perry, &
Young, 1997, chap. 10). The drying process can be divided into
two periods: the constant drying-rate period and falling
drying-rate period. Figure 1 illustrates the water binding ca-
pacity of air, and it can be used to evaluate the evaporation
during the constant drying-rate period. During the falling
drying-rate period, the rate of evaporation is controlled by the
transfer of water from whole grains of cereal to the drying air.
This determines the maximum drying rate of different cereal
species under the specified circumstances. The airflow is kept

Table 1 e The effect of drying air temperatures on the air water binding capacity and the specific energy consumption
during the adiabatic drying process.
Drying air T,  C Heat energy Removed water, Energy consumption, Energy saving compared
demand, kJ kg
1 [air] g kg
1 [dry air] MJ kg
1 [water] to 70  C drying, %a
70 56.1 16.5 3.39 e
90 77.4 22.9 3.38 0.54
110 97.0 29.6 3.28 3.34
130 117.4 36.3 3.23 4.78
a
Ambient air temperature is 15  C and relative humidity 80%. The air is fully saturated after the process (RHout ¼ 100%).
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0
5.0
4.8
4.6
E spec, MJ kg-1 [water]
4.4
4.2
4.0
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3.0
100 90 80 70 60 50
Exhaust air RH, %
Fig. 1 e Specific energy consumption of an ideal dryer at
different drying air temperatures and exhaust air RH,
based on the psychrometric chart. Ambient air
temperature was 15  C and RH 80%.
constant in conventional grain dryers. This also has an effect
on the energy consumption of the drying process, since the
water transfer rate together with the grain equilibrium
moisture determine the humidity of the dryer exhaust air
during the falling drying-rate period. Decreasing exhaust air
humidity means that unused heat energy remains in the dryer
exhaust air, which leads to increasing specific energy con-
sumption. As long as the humidity corresponding to the grain
equilibrium moisture is higher than the exhaust air humidity,
it is possible to save energy by controlling the airflow. For
example for oats this humidity is w70% at the grain storage
moisture content (14%) and at the typical grain temperature of
30  C, according to Eq. (3). Grain drying is often described
by Eq. (1) given by Page and referenced by Sinicio, Muir, Jayas,
and Cenkowski (1994).
ðM
Me Þ
MR ¼ ¼ expð
ktn Þ
ðMo
Me Þ
where MR is the moisture ratio, decimal; M is moisture con-
tent, decimal (d. b.); M0 is the initial moisture content, decimal
(d. b.); Me is the equilibrium moisture content (d. b.); t is time,
min; and k, n are grain dependent coefficients.
Equation (1) can be solved to determine the moisture
content of the crop at a point in time by:
M ¼ ðMo
Me Þ expð
ktn Þ þ Me
Equilibrium moisture is obtained from the Henderson
equation modified by Pfost (Pabis, Jayas, & Cenkowski, 1998,
chap. 6):
Meq ¼ E
F ln ½
ðT þ CÞln RH
where E, F, C are grain dependent coefficients; T is tempera-
ture and RH is relative humidity, decimal. When the drying air
humidity and the temperature and grain dependent co-
efficients are known, the grain moisture as a function of time
can be solved from Eqs. (2) and (3). Jayas, Cenkowski, Pabis,
and Muir (1991) gathered k and n constants for several cereal
species for Eq. (1). Constants E, F and C for most common
cereals for Eq. (3) were presented by Pabis et al. (1998). Figure 2
shows an example of drying rate of wheat and barley
211
T=70°C
T=90°C
T=110°C
T=130°C
40
Fig. 2 e Moisture contents of barley and wheat in thin-layer
drying according to Eqs. (2) and (3), where the temperature
of the drying air was 60  C and RH was 5%.
according to Eqs. (2) and (3). The differences between the
drying rates of different cereal species are not usually
considered in conventional grain dryers.
Although the elevated drying air temperature causes the
theoretical dryer specific energy consumption to decline, it may
damage or destroy the grain quality features, such as its
germination properties for malting and baking qualities. How-
ever, quality reduction also depends on the dryer type.
Montross, Bakker-Arkema, and Hines (1999) reported that the
dryer type had much greater effects on the amount of stress-
cracked corn grains than the drying air temperature in corn
drying. Peltola (1988) stated that higher drying air temperatures
can be used in mixed-flow dryers than in dryers of a cross-flow
design. Several studies suggest the drying air temperature of
70e75  C as a safe level to maintain the quality factors of the
yield (Ghaly & Sutherland, 1984; Suomi et al., 2003). Ghaly and
Taylor (1982) studied the effect of heat treatment to wheat
quality with two different wheat varieties. They found a severe
impairment in the germination rate of one variety of wheat they
investigated when the grain moisture was 14% (w.b.) and it was
(1)
heated in a fluidised bed at 80  C. The same treatment did not
have a significant effect on the germination of the other variety.
The duration of heating at 80  C did not have an effect on results,
but even a treatment of 10 min at temperature of 100  C or
higher destroyed the germination properties of both wheat
varieties studied completely. However, Suomi et al. (2003)
noticed in their experiments with barley that drying air tem-
perature of 98  C did not reduce the grain germination rate in a
(2)
mixed-flow dryer. In mixed-flow design the grain is exposed to
the furnace-hot drying air for a relatively short period of time,
which may explain these results.
Moisture content also has an effect on the temperature
tolerance of grain, which can be seen in Fig. 3. Abrupt
(3)
shrinking caused by excessively rapid drying of wet grain
kernels may cause the embryo to disengage from the outer
shell of the kernel (Ahokas & Koivisto, 1983). This separation is
caused by high stresses that arise between the core and sur-
face of the grain as a consequence of shrinking (Mujumdar,
2007). Ghaly and Taylor (1982) found in their study that the
heat treatment, which severely reduced the germination rate
of wheat at 14% moisture content, did not have a significant
effect on the same wheat at a moisture content of 12%. Also
Ambardekar and Siebenmorgen (2012), who studied the effect
212 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0
Fig. 3 e Relationship between wheat moisture percentage,
time of exposure and critical temperature of the whole
grain during the drying process. The black line represents
a significant reduction in the germination rate. Blue lines
represent the coagulation of gluten for different exposure
times (Ahokas & Koivisto, 1983). (For interpretation of the
references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)
of high temperature exposure on the properties of rice, found
that exposure to temperature of 60  C decreased the germi-
nation rate of two rice varieties rapidly at the initial moisture
contents of 17.9% and 18.6%, but did not have significant effect
at dried moisture content of 12.5%. Even a short exposure at
temperature of 80  C decreased the germination rate sharply
with both varieties and moisture contents. Suomi et al. (2003)
also considered the low harvest moisture (16.2%) as one
reason for the good temperature tolerance of tested barley.
The aim of this study was to examine the energy saving
approaches achieved by: 1) using higher drying air tempera-
ture, and 2) adjusting the drying air temperature and airflow
during the drying process but maintaining the grain germi-
nation rates at the same time. This kind of procedure had been
suggested by Peltola already in 1988. Peltola (1988) concluded
that further research was needed for the control system and
about maintaining the vitality of grain. A series of drying tests
was conducted in a research dryer to measure the possible
energy savings under practical conditions. The grain can
tolerate higher drying air temperatures as it becomes dryer,
thus the drying air temperature was gradually elevated as the
drying process proceeded. The benefit from the elevated dry-
ing air temperature also increases towards the end of the
process (Fig. 1), which is a further argument for using this
procedure. Since the temperature adjustment was done by
reducing the dryer airflow, an additional advantage was ex-
pected by achieving higher exhaust air RH and thereby the
more efficient use of applied heat energy.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Research dryer
The experiments were conducted using a research grain dryer
at the research farm of Helsinki University in the autumn of
2012. A schematic drawing of the dryer can be seen in Fig. 5.
The dryer used was a scaled-down model of a commercial hot
air batch grain dryer. However, the air ducts inside the dryer
were manufactured to the same dimensions as in the full-
scale production models, and therefore the air duct volume
with respect to the dryer total volume was larger in the
research dryer than in a full-scale commercial dryer. More-
over, the surface area of the drying silo with respect to its
volume was bigger, which caused relatively large heat losses.
The research dryer had a total of four mixed-flow type
drying cells. In this study only two of them were used and the
other two served as storage spaces. The total effective volume
of the dryer was approximately 700 l. Both drying cells that
were used had an individual intake and exhaust air tubes, and
the drying air was drawn through the grain by two centrifugal
fans located in the exhaust air tubes. The speed of the fans
and the pendulum-type grain recirculation device were
controlled by frequency controllers. Two 9 kW electric heaters
were used for heating the drying air. The power of the heaters
was adjusted by means of a thyristor controller regulated by
the drying air temperature. The control system kept the dry-
ing air temperature constant.
2.2. Instrumentation
The drying process was monitored by a measuring system
that was inserted into the dryer. The temperature and relative
humidity of the intake and exhaust air and the air volumetric
flow rate were the measured variables. When the drying air
conditions in different points of the process were known, the
changes in the specific humidity and enthalpy were calcu-
lated. When the airflow was known, the heat power and water
mass flows were calculated from the specific humidity and
enthalpy of the air and monitored as a function of time.
Figure 4 shows typical drying air behaviour in the test
dryer. Air enters the dryer at point 1 and is heated to point 2.
The specific humidity of the air remains constant but the
enthalpy increases. Heated air is blown or drawn through the
grain to point 3. During this transition, the humidity of air
increases and enthalpy remains constant (adiabatic process),
apart from changes due to the heat losses in the dryer. As a
result of this behaviour, several key figures that describe the
efficiency of the drying process can be calculated from these
measurements: the amount of removed water, the amount of
used heat energy in total and with respect to evaporated
water, and the heat losses incurred from the drying silo.
The electricity consumed by the heaters was also
measured and recorded, since this was considered to be the
most reliable way to determine the energy consumption of the
dryer. The electric current was measured by current clamps
from one phase of the heaters because the load was sym-
metrical in all three phases. The grid voltage was measured
simultaneously with current to enable the calculation of
electric power. The grain temperatures were measured to
monitor the effect of drying air temperature on the grain
temperature. The measured values were actually the air
temperatures of the spaces between the individual grains,
which were assumed to represent the grain temperature. The
sensors used in the measurements are listed in Table 2, and
the layout of the measuring system is illustrated in Fig. 5.
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0 213

Fig. 4 e Hot air grain drying illustrated in the Mollier diagram (IV Product, 2014).

Data was collected via an Agilent 34970 data logger (Agilent
Technologies, Santa Clara, California, USA) at 15 s logging
intervals. When measuring the electric grid voltage, a voltage
divider was used to scale the voltage to fit the measuring range
of the data logger. A data logging and monitoring application
was built with Test Point software (Capital Equipment Cor-
poration, Billerica, Massachusetts, USA). This enabled the
online monitoring of the parameters of the drying process, in
addition to the storage of the calculated values and the orig-
inal measurement data for later analysis. Data analyses were
conducted by using the Matlab R2010a software (MathWorks,
Natick, Massachusetts, USA).
2.3. Experiment setup
The oats and barley used in the experiments were harvested
from the fields of the research farm of Helsinki University.
Two sets of trials were carried out, one on oats and the other
on barley. Harvesting moisture content for both cereal spe-
cies was around 22e23% (w.b.). Each drying batch was
weighed before and after drying in order to measure the
quantities of the removed water. The weights of individual
batches of each cereal species were adjusted to be as close to
each other as possible at the beginning of the process to
facilitate the comparison between the treatments. Grain
moisture was also measured at the beginning and at the end
of the process, and also during the drying at 30 min intervals.
Grain moisture measurements were taken by means of a
Pfeuffer HE 50 grain moisture meter (Pfeuffer GmbH, Kitzin-
gen, Bavaria, Germany). Each experimental set consisted of
the following treatments:
1. Conventional process. Drying air temperature and airflow
were kept constant during the whole drying process.
Temperatures were maintained at 70  C, which is the
temperature commonly used in grain drying.
2. Elevated temperature. Settings were as for the conven-
tional process except that the drying air temperature
setting was increased to the higher level of 90  C.
3. Airflow control. The drying airflow was reduced when the
relative humidity of the exhaust air dropped below 70%. At
the beginning, the temperature was 70  C and it was
allowed to rise as the airflow decreased. In the last phase,
the drying air temperature was 100  C.

Table 2 e Sensors used in the measurements of the grain

dryer. 2.4. Equations used in calculations

Variable Sensor
Several key values can be calculated from the humidity,
Temperature, T K-type thermocouple
temperature and airflow measurements. The calculations
Relative humidity, RH Honeywell HIH 4000 humidity sensor
were made by a program in the Matlab software. Some of the
Airflow, Øm Halton MSD 250 airflow measurement
unit (Halton Ltd, Kausala, Finland) most important equations used in the calculations are pre-
Sensirion SDP1000-L05 differential sented below.
pressure sensor (Sensirion AG, Stäfä, The voltage signals from the humidity sensors were con-
Switzerland) verted into the corresponding relative humidity readings.
Electric current, I Chauvin Arnoux Mini 09 AC current Specific humidity (x, kg [water] kg
1 [air]) was calculated from
clamps (Chauvin Arnoux, Paris, France)
temperature and relative humidity according to Eq. (4):
214 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0

Fig. 5 e Instrumentation of the measuring system, where T is the air temperature at different points of process, grain
temperature inside the drying silo [ C], RH is the relative humidity of ambient air and dryer exhaust air [%], Øm is the air
mass flow rate [kg sL1], V is the voltage at the heaters [V], and I is the electric current [A].

a$pw ca ma ðT
T0 Þ þ ma xðlv þ cv ðT
T0 ÞÞ
x¼ H¼
bðpa
pw Þ ma
RH ¼ ca ðT
T0 Þ þ xðlv þ cv ðT
T0 ÞÞ (7)
pw ¼ ps (4)
100
1
1
where ca is specific heat capacity of air, 1.007 kJ kg K ; ma is
77; 345 þ 0; 0057T
7235=T the mass of air, kg; T0 is 273.15 K; lv is the water heat of
ps ¼ e T8:2 evaporation, 2503 kJ kg
1; and cv is water vapour specific heat
capacity, 1.87 kJ kg
1 K
1.
The power used for heating the drying air (PH, kW) was
where a is the molar mass of water, 18; b is the molar mass of
calculated from the change of air enthalpy multiplied by the
air [29]; pw is the partial pressure of water vapour, Pa; pa is
drying airflow:
ambient air pressure, Pa; ps is saturated water vapour, Pa and
T is temperature, K. ðHamb
Hin Þqm
PH ¼ (8)
Volumetric airflow was determined using the difference in 3600
the dynamic and static pressures of the airflow measurement where Hamb is the specific enthalpy of ambient air, kJ kg
1 and
unit, which was measured by a differential pressure sensor. Hin is the specific enthalpy of the heated drying air, kJ kg
1.
Airflow of both the intake and the exhaust air were measured, The electric power used by the electric heaters (PE, kW) was
and the air leak from the top and bottom of the dryer was calculated by the product of the measured grid voltage and the
obtained as the difference between the intake and exhaust current readings:
values. The air mass flow (qm, kg h
1) was calculated by Eq. (5)
thus: 3UI
PE ¼ (9)
1000
qm ¼ rfV
where U is the electric grid voltage, V and I is the current in one
(5) phase, A.
pa Ma
r¼
RT Dryer specific energy consumption (Qspec, kWh kg
1
[water]) was calculated by dividing the heating power by the
where r is air density, kg m
3; qv is the volumetric airflow
water evaporation rate:
m3 h
1; pa is ambient air pressure, Pa; Ma is air molar mass,
0.0290 kg mol
1, and R is the ideal gas constant,
8.3143 J mol
1 K
1.
P
The water evaporation rate (Dx, kg h
1) was calculated by Qspec ¼ (10)
Dx
obtaining the difference in specific humidity between the
intake air and the exhaust air, which was multiplied by the air
mass flow rate:
Dx ¼ qm ðxout
xin Þ (6) 3. Results and discussion

where qm is the air mass flow, kg h
1; xout is the specific hu-
midity of the exhaust air, kg [water] kg
1 [air]; and xin is the
specific humidity of the intake air kg [water] kg
1 [air]
The specific enthalpy of air (H, kJ kg
1) was calculated from
the air temperature and absolute humidity by Eq. (7):
3.1. Airflow rates and drying air temperatures
Dryer airflow rates and drying air temperatures with different
treatments are presented in Figs. 6 and 7. The airflow rate
decreased towards the end of the process, as the grain
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0 215

Oats Barley

700 700

600 600

Airflow, m3 h−1
−1
Airflow, m h
3
500 500

400 400

300 300

0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Drying time, min Drying time, min

Conventional process Eleveted Temp. Airflow control

Fig. 6 e Dryer airflow rate with different treatments.

moisture content decreased. This is very typical behaviour in a
recirculating batch drying process and it is a consequence of
an increase in grain bulk density as it gets dryer. The airflow
control is also clearly visible in both Figs. 6 and 7. Since the
power was not controlled in the airflow test, the drying air
temperature was allowed to rise when the airflow was
reduced. Figure 7 shows also that the desired temperature was
not reached in the beginning of the process. This was partic-
ularly noticeable with barley, which had higher airflow rate
than oats. This was probably caused by the larger size and
rounder shape of barley whole grains and therefore the higher
porosity of grain bulk material. Due to the higher airflow rate,
the power of the heaters was not adequate to provide the
desired temperature rise at the beginning of the process.
3.2. Exhaust air humidity
Figure 8 presents the exhaust air humidity values for different
drying treatments for oats and barley. One target of the airflow
control was to keep the exhaust air humidity at a high level
and thereby use the applied heat energy as efficiently as
possible for evaporating water. When the exhaust air hu-
midity falls, heated air and unused heat are blown directly
through the dryer, which causes a decrease in dryer efficiency.
In this case, the relative humidity is more suitable for moni-
toring the efficiency of energy use than specific humidity,
because it also takes into consideration the increase in the air
water binding capacity as the temperature rises. The higher
the relative humidity, the smaller is the amount of unused
heat energy in the exhaust air of the dryer. Specific exhaust air
humidity gives a good indication of the dryer performance,
but gives little information about the amount of unused heat
energy and thus the energy efficiency of the dryer.
When drying oats, the change in exhaust air humidity
when the airflow was reduced could be clearly seen. This
occurred when the exhaust air humidity dropped to below
70% for the first time. After this airflow adjustment was made,
the humidity rose rapidly before starting to fall again at about
110 min. The next airflow adjustment took place at 150 min. It
slowed down the reduction of the air humidity, but did not
have as significant an influence as the previous adjustment.
The conventional drying at 70  C and the elevated tempera-
ture of 90  C had very similar behaviour compared to each
other. However, the slope for the exhaust air humidity curve
was steeper for the elevated temperature, as seen in Fig. 8,
because the drying process proceeded more rapidly.

Oats Barley

100 100
Drying air temperature, C

Drying air temperature, °C

°

75 75

50 50

25 25

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Drying time, min Drying time, min

Conventional process Eleveted Temp. Airflow control

Fig. 7 e Drying air temperatures with different treatments.

216 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0

Oats Barley
100 100
90 90

Exhaust air RH, %

Exhaust air RH, %

80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
50 100 150 200 50 100 150 200 250 300
Drying time, min Drying time, min

Conventional process Eleveted Temp. Airflow control

Fig. 8 e Dryer exhaust air relative humidity with different treatments.

When drying barley, the humidity of the exhaust air
generally remained at a lower level than for oats especially at
the beginning of the process, even though the harvest
moisture content of both cereals was of the same magnitude.
Whole barley grains are considerably larger than those of
oats; the weight of thousand seeds for barley was 52 g and for
oats 34 g. Due to the larger size and rounder shape of the
whole barley grains, the distance from the kernel core to the
surface of the grain is greater for barley than for oats. Ac-
cording to Jayas et al. (1991), it is generally agreed that the
water movement inside the grain is controlled by diffusion.
Therefore, the moisture has to diffuse over a longer distance
in barley grains compared to those of oats as a result of the
size and shape of the grain. This in turn, leads to slower
evaporation and thereby lower exhaust air humidity than for
oats at the same drier setting. The same phenomenon can
also be seen in Fig. 2, which shows a comparison between
wheat and barley. Theoretical assessments for oats cannot be
made since the coefficients n and k in Eq. (2) do not exist in
the literature.
The differences between the treatments were not as clearly
visible for barley drying as they were for oats drying. The slope
of the exhaust air humidity curve was a bit steeper at elevated
temperatures compared to conventional process settings in
barley drying (Fig. 8). This was caused by a more rapid drying
at higher temperatures. With the airflow control process, the
humidity of the exhaust air was slightly higher at the end of
the drying period compared to conventional process, but the
explicit behaviour that had occurred for oats drying could not
be detected for barley.
3.3. Dryer specific energy consumption
The most common value used to report the energy efficiency
in grain drying is the specific energy consumption per kilo-
gram of evaporated water (kWh kg
1). Figure 9 presents the
specific heat energy consumption for different treatments and
grain species as a function of drying time.
The results presented in Fig. 9 do not show any substantial
differences in the dryer energy efficiency between the test
members. When drying oats, the specific energy consumption
at elevated temperature appeared to be at a higher level
compared to the conventional process. For barley drying, the
airflow control appeared to produce the highest specific en-
ergy consumption. However, in all test series the elevated
temperature and the airflow control approaches shortened
the drying time compared to the conventional process, and
thus consumed less energy for the whole drying process.

Oats Barley
4 4
Specific heat energy consumption,

Specific heat energy consumption,

kWh/kg of evaporated water

kWh/kg of evaporated water

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
50 100 150 200 50 100 150 200 250 300
Drying time, min Drying time, min

Conventional process Eleveted Temp. Airflow control

Fig. 9 e Specific energy consumption of different treatments and grain species.


Specific energy consumption,
2
kWh kg [water]
1.5
−1
1
0.5
0
Conv. Elev. T Air f. ctrl
Oats
Fig. 10 e Comparison for specific electrical energy
consumption of the heaters (kWh kgL1 [evaporated water])
for each drying process setting for oats and barley.
3.4. Process parameters in total
The total amount of water removed during the drying process
can be calculated by three different ways: by determining the
weights of the grain before and after drying, by determining
the water removed with the airflow, or by determining the
weight of grain before drying and the grain moisture before
and after drying. The uncertainty in the airflow and grain
moisture measurements render weighing the grain before and
after drying to be the most accurate method, thus it was
chosen to determine the net mass of removed water.
Although drying was intended to be stopped at the same grain
moisture level for each treatment, there were some differ-
ences in the final moisture content values. However, as the
energy consumption was calculated per kilogram of evapo-
rated water, this did not have an effect on the results.
Figure 10 presents the dryer specific electric energy con-
sumption for each drying method run. These values have been
calculated from the total electrical energy that was used by
the heaters during the process and total masses of evaporated
water that were driven off. The results showed lower specific
energy consumptions for the elevated temperature and the
airflow control approaches compared to the conventional
process. The only exception was the result for barley, where
the elevated temperature had about the same specific energy
consumption as obtained for the conventional process (only
0.1 kWh kg
1 higher).
15
Saved energy, %
10
5 Figure 13 presents the grain temperatures as a function of
0 slightly higher with the elevated drying air temperature
−5
Elev. T Air f. ctrl
Oats
Fig. 11 e The impact of elevated drying air temperature and
airflow control on energy saving for drying oats and barley.
The conventional process is the datum.
b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0 217
Energy saving percentages with the elevated temperature
and airflow control compared to the conventional process are
shown in Fig. 11. For all drying approaches except one, the
tested settings improved the energy efficiency of the dryer.
The benefits of the airflow control were greater for oats than
for barley, which can be explained by the faster evaporation.
The larger whole grain volume of barley caused the water
transfer rate from the inner parts of the grain to be slower,
Conv. Elev. T Air f. ctrl which inhibited the rate of evaporation. The energy saving
Barley achieved with the airflow control was 14% for oats drying but
5% for barley.
One possible explanation for the increased energy con-
sumption for elevated temperature method of barley drying
can be the higher heat losses that occurred in the drying silo.
When the drying air temperature was elevated, the heat losses
in the drying silo also increased because of the higher ther-
modynamic potential difference. If the heat energy cannot be
used for evaporation due to the slow diffusion of water inside
the individual barley grains, the increased heat losses may
exceed the benefit obtained from using the elevated temper-
ature method.
3.5. Grain temperature
Grain temperature was measured at two locations inside the
dryer: at the bottom of the dryer just before the outlet and at
the storage cells above the drying cells. The location of the
sensors is also illustrated in Fig. 5. The upper measurement
was more reliable regarding to the mean grain temperature,
because the grain was well mixed in the feeder device and in
the elevator. At the bottom of the dryer there are hot zones
and cool zones, since the hot air ducts are located vertically in
a line. The readings of the lower sensors did not accurately
reflect the mean grain temperatures because of the differen-
tial temperature zoning, and also because changes in the grain
flow during the drying process.
Grain temperatures are presented in Fig. 12. In general, the
grain temperatures did not rise very high. The results were
very similar compared to the thermal imaging camera results
reported by Mellman et al. (2011), who found that the highest
grain temperatures were around 30  C with drying air tem-
peratures of 60  C and 70  C. With elevated temperature and
airflow control, the highest grain temperatures were about
5e7  C higher than for conventional drying. With airflow
control, the grain temperature remained at the same level as
for the conventional drying, and started to rise after the first
airflow adjustment. On the other hand, grain should have
been able to withstand higher temperatures in the latter
phase of the process, when some drying had already occurred.
grain moisture. The grain temperature for oats was only
compared to conventional drying. In the airflow control
method the grain temperatures did not rise above the value of
Elev. T Air f. ctrl conventional drying until close to the end of the process, by
Barley which time the grain moisture had declined to 16%. The grain
temperatures for elevated drying temperature and airflow
control in barley drying were very close to each other, and
were higher than for conventional drying throughout the
whole process. Grain temperatures in barley drying were
218 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0

Oats Barley
35

Grain temperature, deg C

Grain temperature, deg C

30 30

25
25
20
20
15
15
10
10
0 50 100 150 200 250 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Drying time, min Drying time, min

Conventional process Eleveted Temp. Airflow control

Fig. 12 e Grain temperature of oats and barley in storage cells with different drying treatments.

Oats Barley
35 35

30 30
Grain temperature, deg C

Grain temperature, deg C

25 25

20 20

15 15

10 10
20 18 16 14 22 20 18 16 14
Grain moisture, % (w.b.) Grain moisture, % (w.b.)

Conventional process Eleveted Temp. Airflow control

Fig. 13 e Grain temperatures as function of grain moisture for oats and barley at different drying treatments.

generally higher compared to those for oats, which is a result barley the different treatments did not affect the viability, in
of the slower drying rate, as less energy was used for fact the highest germination rate was observed with the
evaporation. airflow control method. This may be a consequence of the
greater grain size of barley, which is associated with the
3.6. Germination rate longer time it takes for the whole individual grains of barley
to warm up, or simply to an unidentified, but inherent, dif-
The germination rate of each test treatment was determined ference in the temperature tolerance between different
after the drying run to examine the effect of elevated tem- cereal species and varieties.
perature and airflow control on the viability of grains.
Germination tests were conducted by the grain laboratory of
the Finnish food safety authority, Evira according to the ISTA
standard procedures. Results of the germination tests are Table 3 e Percentages of normally or incompletely
presented in Table 3. germinated and dead seeds for different tested drying
The presence of harvest and disease damages compli- methods.
cated the analysis, and it was difficult to differentiate be- Cereal Drying method Normal Incompletely Dead
tween damage associated with these effects from those species germinated
caused by drying. Some degradation in viability of seeds Oats Conventional 73% 11% 16%
occurred with oats especially for the airflow control process Oats Elevated temp. 70% 14% 16%
(Table 3). This was probably caused by the high temperatures Oats Airflow control 65% 22% 13%
in the latter part of the drying process. On the other hand, the Barley Conventional 77% 11% 12%
proportion of dead seeds of oats was slightly lower for the Barley Elevated temp. 74% 13% 13%
Barley Airflow control 80% 8% 12%
airflow control compared to the other tested methods. With
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 2 1 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 0 9 e2 2 0
−1
Evaporation rate, kg [water] h
10
8
6 release rate of the grain. This would also enable the choice of
4 More information is needed about the temperature tolerance of
2 different cereal species and varieties at different moisture
0 inside the individual whole grains between different cereal
Conv. Elev. T Air F. ctrl. Conv.
Oats
Fig. 14 e The mean evaporation rates over the drying
process for different dryer settings for oats and barley.
3.7. Drying time
Under practical on-farm conditions the performance of the
grain dryer is at least as important as the energy efficiency. In
temperate countries, the grain drying step is often a bottle-
neck in the harvest processing chain, and therefore the drying
time has to be as short as possible. Figure 14 presents the
mean evaporation rates of each tested method, which gives a
good indication of the drying speeds of tested drying methods.
These figures are calculated from the total mass of removed
water over the drying process divided by the drying time for
that process. The fastest evaporation rates for both cereal
species was achieved with the elevated temperature method.
The evaporation rate for oats was 24% faster with the elevated
temperature approach and 17% faster with the airflow control
method. The corresponding figures for barley were 16% and
5%, respectively.
4. Conclusions
The results indicated that controlling the temperature and
airflow during the drying process in a mixed-flow batch grain
dryer has the potential for improving both the energy efficiency
and performance of the dryer. The energy savings achieved
with the airflow control were 5% for barley drying and 14% for
oats. Moreover, improvements in the evaporation rates were
5% and 17%, for barley and oats respectively. The advantages of
the airflow control system depend on the type of cereal dried. In
this study, only oats and barley were tested. It would be inter-
esting to determine the behaviour of other grains.
The advantage of the airflow control was greater when
drying oats compared to barley. This probably resulted from
the larger individual grain size and rounder shape of barley,
which predisposes barley grains to a longer moisture diffusion
times and thus lower evaporation rates. High temperatures in
the latter part of the airflow control process caused some
degradation in the viability of oats. No drying damages were
observed for barley, even though the grain temperatures were
generally higher during barley drying.
A control system that uses the drying air temperature,
exhaust air humidity and grain temperatures as control factors
for setting the drying airflow would be technically straightfor-
ward and cheap to install into new dryers, or even as a retrofit in
219
those dryers already in use. With this kind of control system,
drying process parameters, such as drying air temperature and
airflow, could be optimised for each cereal species, according to
a combination of the moisture content and the moisture
the drying mode according to the end-use purpose of the grain.
contents. Moreover, the differences in the water diffusion rates
Elev. T Air F. ctrl.
Barley species must be taken into account when designing the control
system. The correct control parameters should be resolved to
automate the control system. Another option would be to use a
model-based drying control for a particular cereal species and
initial moisture content as input data.
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