THIN-LAYER DRYING MODELS FOR MALT

Thin layer drying experiments for the germinated malting barley variety, Triumph were conducted with air temperatures ranging from 30.3-degrees-C to 90.2-degrees-C and relative humidity ranging from 2.4% to 79.2%. An interactive least square procedure was developed to fit the single exponential equation and the Page equation to the thin layer drying data. The Page equation was better than the single exponential equation, but the single exponential equation was found to describe the thin layer drying of malt adequately. The drying constant was expressed as a function of the drying air temperature and the dynamic equilibrium moisture content was expressed as a function of drying air temperature and relative humidity.