. The dry milling process is the most common method used to produce fuel ethanol

Question

. The dry milling process is the most common method used to produce fuel ethanol from starchy grains such as sorghum. The pericarp of sorghum kernels has to be conditioned to an ideal moisture content before its removal through decortication. A 50 lb bag of sorghum originally has 10.5% db moisture content which has to be increased to 20.5% db before decortication. Calculate the amount of water to be added. During decortication, 20% of the total material is removed along with the pericarp of the grain. The remaining sorghum kernels are sent to a grinder to reduce the particle size. This ground product then has to be dried to 14% wb moisture content before it is packed and sent to the market. The dryer has ability to remove about 7.5 g water per min. Calculate the minimum drying time needed. 2525 SJd

Explanation / Answer

50 lb contain 10.5% moisture which means moisture content = 50 X 10.5/100 =5.25 lb

20.5 % moisture means total moisture content = 50 X 20.5/100 10.25

Therefore amount of water needed to add = 10.25 - 5.25 = 5 lb

Now the weight of total content = 50 + 5 = 55 lb out of which 20 % is removed during decortication and thus remaining amount = 55 - 11 = 44 lb

Now the total amount (44 lb) is needed to be dried to 14%. It means 44 X 14/100 = 6.16 lb content will remain after drying and thus total lossed amount of water = 44 - 6.16 = 37.84 lb = 17164 gm has to be removed before sending to the market.

Since dryer removes 7.5 gm water per minute, total time to remove 17164 gm of water = 17164/ 7.5 = 2288.52 minute.

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