Comparison Between Fluidized Bed and Spouted Bed Drying for Seeds

Abstract

Fluidized bed dryers (FBDs) and spouted bed dryers (SBDs) are considered efficient dryers for drying seeds from high moisture content (MC; 20–25%wb) to medium MC (≈18%wb). In this work, a number of drying experiments and seed quality tests were conducted using rice and wheat seeds in order to compare the FBD and SBD with regard to drying rate, product quality, and specific energy consumption. It was found that FBD was better in terms of a faster drying rate and SBD was better in terms of specific energy consumption. However, it could not be clearly concluded which dryer provided a better product quality in terms of germination percentage.

Keywords:

• Energy consumption
• Fluidized bed dryer
• Seed drying
• Spouted bed dryer