This study investigated the drying kinetics of Rosa flower buds (Rosa damascene Mill) under environmental conditions (shade), as well as in direct and indirect solar dryers. The effects of 40 °C, 50 °C, and 60 °C temperatures on the drying of the buds were also examined using a laboratory cabinet dryer. The drying rate of the Rosa flower buds was compared with various mathematical models, and the parameters of these models were evaluated. The results illustrated that drying Rosa flower buds under shade required a lengthy period time of approximately 13 days. In contrast, utilising solar dryers significantly reduced the drying period time for Rosa flower buds. Also, compared to the ambient drying method, the use of indirect solar dryers had the most substantial effect on decreasing the drying period time of the buds up to 86.6%. Furthermore, applying a temperature of 60 °C in the laboratory dryer reduced the drying time of the buds by 76.2% compared to a temperature of 40 °C. The Midilli et al. model (MDM), Page model (PM) and approximate diffusion model (ADM) demonstrated a good fit with the experimental data and can be employed to represent the drying behaviour of Rosa flower buds. The effective of moisture diffusivity of Rosa flower buds during drying was found to be in a range from 6.87 × 10-12 to 1.89 × 10-10 m2.s-1 and the activation energy values were determined as 65.30 and 72.80 kJ∙mol-1 for buds which were dried in the laboratory cabinet dryer and those dried using the ambient and solar dryer methods, respectively.

Handling systems in seed processing factories inflict impressive damages on seed corn. It was reported 24% of damages on seed corns related to elevators. In current research, the operation of a Z-Shape elevator was studied and compared to conventional bucket elevator which employed in two seed drying stations of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute in Karaj city and Shahi plant in Moghan plain, Iran. The effect of elevator operation on seed cracking and breakage was determined by t-test. According to the results, applying Z-Shape elevator decreased the physical seed damages up to 78% and reduced the chance of seed cracking between 4% to 8% in comparison with conventional elevators. Economically results illustrated spending the cost equal to 10% of the loss funds which was accrued due to employing conventional elevators, could decrease damages until 90% in Moghan plain.

Handling systems in seed processing factories inflict impressive damages on seed corn. It was reported 24% of damages on seed corns related to elevators. In current research, the operation of a Z- Shape elevator was studied and compared to conventional bucket elevator which employed in two seed drying stations of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute in Karaj city and Shahi plant in Moghan plain, Iran. The effect of elevator operation on seed cracking and breakage was determined by t- test. According to the results, applying Z- Shape elevator decreased the physical seed damages up to 78% and reduced the chance of seed cracking between 4 to 8% in comparison with conventional elevators. Economically results illustrated spending the cost equal to 10% of the loss funds which was accrued due to employing conventional elevators, could decrease damages until 90% in Moghan plain.

Operation of a rotary dyer (RD) was compared with conventional fixed bed dryer (FBD). Drying time, trends of moisture content and specific energy consumption for water evaporation were investigated for drying of Iranian paddy cultivar., rice milling quality such as husking, milling recovery (MR) and head rice yield (HRY), were studied. Result showed that, using FBD decreased drying time and saved energy 8 and 6.78 percent, respectively. Specific energy consumption in NRD was 10.48 MJ per one kilogram of removed water and it was 6.82 percent more than FBD. Paddy moisture contents and temperatures differences at top and bottom layers of FBD were 2 percent and 6°C, respectively. High thermal stress in low layers of FBD increased grains cracking chance in milling process. The type of dryer did not have significant effect on dehusking process, but MR and HRY were 2.7 and 7.6 percent respectively more when paddy dried with RD.

In this study, air deflector plates were used in order to increase the air elapsed time in the chamber. The air flow pattern was simulated using computational fluid dynamics. The geometry of the chamber was produced in 2D and meshed by triangular and quadrilateral elements, boundary conditions were defined and the governing equations solved. Modeling of flow without any deflectors depicted the air flowed to the chamber conducted to the outlet without any distortion. Air vortices were generated when the deflectors defined in model. To evaluate the influence of deflectors on drying period, constructed plates installed in the dryer chamber and melon slices were dried when deflectors used or not. Simulation results showed magnitude of the air velocity was increased and temperature uniform distribution developed on the surface of trays. The outlet temperature was also decreased up to 10 % and drying time reduced to 22 % when the deflectors were employed.

Introduction High energy consumption and non-uniformity drying in conventional batch type dryer are the common problems in paddy dying industry. Non-uniformity drying causes to kernel breaking chance in the milling process. Using new dryers with better performance can solve the drying problem and energy saving. In this research, the operation of a re-circulating batch dryer was compared with a fixed bed batch dryer (conventional dryer) for paddy drying. Materials and Methods This research was done in a paddy milling factory in Ferydonkenar and deputy of Rice Research Institute of Iran, in Amol, Mazandaran province. Both re-circulating dryer and conventional batch type dryer were made by Khazar Electric Company in Amol- Iran and they had 5 tonnes capacity. In the re-circulating dryer, ambient air was warmed in the furnace and blown to drying zone inside of grain bin. Natural Gas (NG) was used for air warming in dryers. Warm air absorbed paddy moisture and pushed away from the dryer. Drying temperature ranges for re-circulating dryer and conventional dryer was 48-50 °C and 38-52°C, respectively. The paddy variety was one of the Iranian rice varieties as Tarom and initial moisture content of grains was 21% (w.b), it was decreased using drying to 8-9% (w.b) for milling process. Paddy moisture content was measured each 60-120 min by SUNCUE TD-6 portable moisture tester-Taiwan. Energy consumption calculated by fuel and electrical energy summation in each experiment. Natural Gas and electrical power consumption were measured by Gas and electric counters respectively. Drying time, paddy moisture change trend and energy consumption were investigated for paddy drying in each dryers. Also, milling ratio, breaking percent, whitening degree, and elongation rate after cooking were studied after the milling process for rice dried using national standard methods and deputy of Rice Research Institute facilities in Amol. Experimental samples were 150 g and husker (SATAKE THU35B), a whitener (SATAKE TMU05) and KETT C-100 were used for husking, whitening and whiteness degree, respectively. All Experiments were done with three replication and data analyzed using T- student method in 5% probability. Results and Discussion Results showed that re-circulating dryer caused to reduce 54.12 percent in drying time and energy saving in paddy drying in compare with conventional paddy dryers. The trend of moisture content changes was longer and over-drying occurred in lower layers in conventional batch type dryer compared to re-circulating dryer. Paddy drying was 20 hours more in batch type than the re-circulating dryer. It caused wasting time and energy consumption. Specific energy consumption for water evaporating in the re-circulating batch dryer was 3.9 MJ/kg water and it was 76.25 percent less than fixed bed batch dryer. After the drying process in both dryers, paddy moisture content was in range 8-9 percent (% w.b). Using re-circulating dryer did not have a significant effect on milling yield but it had a significant effect on broken rice. Broken rice decreased by 5 percent after the milling process when paddy dried by re-circulating. Uniformity of layers drying and normal heat stress in rice kernels in re-circulating dryer reduced broken rice in the milling process. Whiteness degree of rice dried using fixed bed dryer was 2.4 percent more than the re-circulating batch dryer. Also, rice dried had more elongation rate about 6.2 percent after cooking when paddy dried by conventional dryer. Conclusions Results of this paper showed that using of re-circulating dryer would decrease time and modify energy consumption in paddy drying. The costs of installation for the re-circulating batch dryer was about 5.3 times more than fixed bed batch dryer. It seems too expensive at first but considering energy and time-saving in the drying process and suitable effect on decreasing grain breakage in paddy milling, using of the re-circulating batch dryer is recommendable in rice milling factories.

Introduction Long drying time and high energy consumption are the big problems in paddy drying using conventional batch type dryer. Besides, non-uniformity occurs in paddy rice dried and low milling quality. Paddy is over dried in lower layers and broken kernel chance increased in milling process. Using of a new pattern for warm air causes to better air passing through the paddy bulk and uniformity of drying. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a good method for modeling of air passing in dryers in order to find better air condition in paddy drying process. The aim of this research was investigation on common and porch patterns applied for air entrance to paddy bulk in a dryer in order to optimize air channel conditions in a conventional paddy dryer. Materials and Methods In this study, optimization of air flow was investigated in a batch type paddy dryer using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Two patterns as conventional and porch (reverse V type) patterns were applied for air entrance to paddy bulk in the dryer as conventional and porch (reverse V type) patterns. Experimental examination were done using a laboratory batch type dryer with chargeable air flow pattern in 50 °C for drying paddy (Tarom-Hashmei Var.). Numerical simulation of air velocity and pressure drop in porous media of paddy in the dryer was achieved by employing computational fluid dynamics method and Fluent software. Air velocity pattern and temperature changes in bulk of paddy were investigated in different time of solution including 20, 100, 1000, 1800, 3600 and 7200 seconds for both patterns. Results and Discussion Considering air flow and temperature as constant, the results showed the porch type pattern has better performance than the conventional pattern for air passing in the dryer. The velocity vortex was higher in all parts of the channel in the porch scheme. Air velocity uniformed decreased from beginning to end area in the conventional pattern, but in the porch type pattern, air velocity was more in the end of the duct than beginning area. Pressure drop was about 10 percent in the conventional pattern than porch pattern. At the end of the air channel, this variation inversed due to contact of the air with the end wall and pressure drop in this part of the chamber of porch scheme was higher than the conventional one. Improvement of air flow in paddy occurred in low and middle layers in the porch type pattern and there was no difference between two air passing patterns in top layers. Validation of modeling showed that temperature disturbance of the porch model was more uniform than the conventional model and difference between temperatures of model and experiments was about 2 to 3 °C. Conclusions The research concluded that using of the porch type pattern had better performance than the conventional pattern for air passing in the dryer but it is needs to more supplementary research to find the best height and angle in the paddy dryer. Porch type pattern causes to more speed and uniformity of air among of paddy than the conventional pattern. This improvement observed in low and middle layers of the paddy bulk. Validation of temperature data showed that the difference between experimental and modeled data was 4 to 6 percent and this difference was higher in the conventional pattern than the porch pattern. According to the results of this research, Porch pattern can be recommended to use in the conventional batch type dryer.

Traditional roasting of chickpea is an arduous and intricate unit operation for processors. It is highly labor intensive, tedious, unhygienic, and productivity is often too low to justify labor and investment time. The aim of this study was thus to design and fabricate a chickpea roaster and evaluate its performance. Raw chickpea of different moisture content (7.92, 8.37 and 9.16%) were roasted at different roasting temperatures (110, 120 and 130°C) and performance characteristics including, roasting time, percentage material loss, functional efficiency, throughput, and machine capacity were evaluated. Results obtained indicated that roasting chickpea of 7.92% at 120°C yielded the best roasting conditions, as it had the least material loss of 1.47% best throughput capacity and functional efficiency of 18.13kg/h and 97.72%, respectively. The fabricated chickpea roaster does not require skilled labor and can effectively address the challenges associated with chickpea roasting. Practical application: The fabricated roaster is relevant to the roasting chickpea to produce roasted chickpea (called Nokhodchi). This will practically address the impending challenges associated with chickpea roasting especially in the Mamaghan and rural areas. This roaster will further ensure production of quality chickpea to its teeming consumers, thereby contributing to food security.

The effects of pretreatment solution (dipping in boiling water, salty boiling water, ethil oleat) were studied on drying kinetic of sour cherry. The thin-layer drying of sour cherries were carried out at three air temperatures of 50, 60 and 70 degrees C and airflow velocity of 1 m/s. The experimental data were fitted to several thin-layer drying models such as Newton, Henderson and Pabis, Page, Logarithmic, Approximate Diffusion, Two-term exponential, and Midilli et al.. Three statistical tools coefficient of determination (R-2), reduced chi-square (x(2)) and root means square error (RMSE) were used to quantify the goodness of fit. According to the results, drying time of sour cherry samples dipped in salty boiling water solution was shorter than the pretreated samples and control treatments. Besids, The Midilli et al. and Logarithmic models were found to be most suitable in describing the drying characteristics of sour cherry respectively. The effective moisture diffusivity of sour cherries based on the analytical solution of Fick's second law ranged from 2.07x10(-11) to 2.33x10(-10) m(2)/s. Using of pretreated solutions caused to decreasing activation energy in sour cherry drying process. Activation energy values varied from 23.74 to 83.05 kJ/mol. (c) All Rights Reserved

Summary Th in layer of apple chips (‘Golab’) with 73.4% (wet basis) moisture content were dried in a hybrid solar dryer. A new mechanism was designed to change inclination of the collector. Drying experiments were run in three levels of airfl ow rates and two levels of collector tilted angle. In order to describe the thin layer drying, ten diff erent models were selected. Th e goodness of fi tting was evaluated by calculating and comparing the statistical values for each model. Th e approximation of diff usion and the Midilli model were chosen for 30, and 45 degrees of tilted angle, respectively. Besides, fi ve linear and nonlinear equations were derived in order to establish the best relationship for every empirical coeffi cient with temperature and airfl ow rate. Results revealed that the 2nd polynomial equations were suitable to predict these coeffi cients. Comparison between moisture ratio data in diff erent inclination evidenced that more drying intensity occurred with 30 degrees of slope angle and airfl ow 0.018 m3·s-1.

Determination of thermo-physical properties of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) juice is essential for examining, controlling, and developing numerical models of processes such as drying and concentrating. Th ese properties are aff ected by changing the percentage of soluble solid content (oBrix) and temperature. Th ermophysical properties of pomegranate juice including density, specifi c heat and thermal conductivity at temperature range from 25 to 70oC and at the three levels of soluble solid content (12, 40 and 65 oBrix) were investigated in this research. Th ermal conductivity, density, and specifi c heat were measured by co-axial cylinder, volumetric pycnometer and diff erential scanning calorimeter (DSC), respectively. Results from regression analysis of output data showed that both temperature and solid content aff ected the thermo-physical properties of pomegranate juice; however, the soluble solid content exhibited a greater eff ect. By increasing soluble solid content and decreasing temperature, thermals conductivity and specifi c heat have been reduced linearly but density increased during augment of soluble solid content or decrease of temperature.

Primary tillage parameters and their effects on tractor efficiency , fuel consumption management and cost reduction are very important in mechanization. The main goal of th is study was to determin e some performance parameters in three conventional tractors Massey Ferguson 285 (MF 285), Universal 650 (U650) and John Deer 3140 (JD3140) to primary tillage practices in some area of Iran. These parameters are important for select ing tractor s to set up mechanization program in a large scale. The sampling method was random in 10 regions with seven replications. After data gathering, results were analyzed using SPSS software. Results indicated that average drawbar power for plowing without considering of area and tractor type was 15 kW. The maximum and minimum drawbar powers were 19.20 kW and 11.10 kW for Esfahan and Fars areas respectively at 1% level significance. There were significant differences between values of rolling resistance of JD3140 tractor with other tractors at 1% level of significance. Besides, no significant differences were observed between tractors of U650 and MF285. Slippage percentage was similar for most areas. The maximum and minimum slippage was recorded for MF285 tractor in Moghan area and JD3140 tractor in Esfahan area respectively. The optimum soil moisture was 15% for slippage reduction . Average Power Delivery Efficiency (PDE) was 25.5%. It was low in comparison with world standards and requires improvement. Tractor of JD3140 had maximum fuel consumption (0.012 m 3 h -1 ) as compared to other types of tractor. Use of the U650 tractor was recommended to farmer and other data can be use d for mechanization programs. Keywords: d rawbar power, p rimary tillage, s lippage, p rimary tillage parameters, r olling resistance

Summary Th e eff ects of pretreatment solution (no treatment, boiling water, salty boiling water, ethil oleat) on drying time of sour cherry were studied experimentally. Th e thin layer drying of sour cherries was carried out at three air temperatures of 50, 60, 70°C and with constant airfl ow velocity of 1 m/s. Drying kinetic, energy consumption and organoleptic properties as taste, visual color and texture were evaluated in dried fruits. Results of experiments showed that pretreatment solutions and air temperatures had signifi cant eff ect on drying time and organoleptic properties of dried sour cherry. Using of pretreatment solution is necessary before drying process. It reduced drying time up to 80% and energy saving was approximately 83% in comparison with no treatment samples. Results of this research indicated that using of salty boiling water as pretreatment and temperature of 50°C in sour cherry drying process cause the best result in drying time and organoleptic evaluation such as taste quality, visual color and texture suitability of dried fruit. In addition, energy consumption for drying reduced noticeably when sour cherry was pretreated with salty boiling water.

Determination of thermo-physical properties of pomegranate juice is necessary to control processes such as drying and concentration. These properties have been affected by soluble solid content and temperature. Therefore the properties including; density, specific heat and thermal conductivity were determined at three levels of soluble solid content, 12 o , 40 o and 65 o Brix and temperature range from 25 to 70 o C. Thermal conductivity by co-axial cylinder apparatus, specific heat by differential scanning calorimeter and density by a volumetric pycnometer were measured. Regression analysis indicated that both soluble solid content and temperature affected on these properties but the soluble solid content has more influence. Increase of soluble solid content from 12 to 65 caused a decrease in thermal conductivity from 0.233 to 0.193 W/m. o C, specific heat from 5.19 to 3.34 kJ/kg. o C and an increase in density from 1027 to 1323 kg/m 3 respectively. With increase in temperature from 30 to 70 o C, density decrease from 1173 to 1150 kg/m 3 but thermal conductivity increase from 0.188 to 0.229 W/m. o C during temperature increasing from 28 to 42 o C and specific heat increase from 3.9 to 4.4 kJ/kg during temperature increasing from 40 to 60 o C. With regression analysis, the suitable empirical models of thermophysical properties of pomegranate juice with operating variables were obtained.

Summary Determination of thermo-physical properties of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) juice is essential for examining, controlling, and developing numerical models of processes such as drying and concentrating. Th ese properties are aff ected by changing the percentage of soluble solid content (oBrix) and temperature. Th ermophysical properties of pomegranate juice including density, specifi c heat and thermal conductivity at temperature range from 25 to 70oC and at the three levels of soluble solid content (12, 40 and 65 oBrix) were investigated in this research. Th ermal conductivity, density, and specifi c heat were measured by co-axial cylinder, volumetric pycnometer and diff erential scanning calorimeter (DSC), respectively. Results from regression analysis of output data showed that both temperature and solid content aff ected the thermo-physical properties of pomegranate juice; however, the soluble solid content exhibited a greater eff ect. By increasing soluble solid content and decreasing temperature, thermals conductivity and specifi c heat have been reduced linearly but density increased during augment of soluble solid content or decrease of temperature.

Moisture sorption isotherms of red onion slices were determined at 30, 40, 50, and 60°C using the standard gravimetric static method over a range of relative humidity from 0.11 to 0.83. The experimental sorption curves were fitted by seven empirical equations: modified Henderson, modified Chung–Pfost, modified Halsey, modified Oswin, modified Smith, modified BET, and GAB. Also three types of Artificial neural network models: linear, multilayer perceptron, and radial basis function were tested and developed to predict the equilibrium moisture content of onion slices and the selected models were trained by using related algorithms. The modified Oswin model was found acceptable for predicting adsorption moisture isotherms and fitting to the experimental data, based on the coefficient of determination (R2= 0.991), mean relative percent error (MRE=15.019), and standard error of estimation (SEE=1.371). Besides, multilayer perceptron model with four layers (2: 17: 14: 1) was selected as the best artificial neural network for estimation of onion slices’ equilibrium moisture content by considering R2= 0.993 and good performance. The net isosteric heat of adsorption of moisture was determined by applying the Clausius–Clapeyron equation to the sorption isotherms at different temperatures. The net isosteric heat of adsorption of red onion slices varied between 1.46 and 4.96 kJ/mol at moisture content varying between 2% and 52% (d.b.).

Canola, one of the new oil seeds in Iran, is investigated for drying in Batch fluidised beds. Experiments were conducted to assess the kinetics of drying in the temperature range of 30-100 degrees C. The drying rate was found to increase significantly with increasing temperature. The drying rate was compared with various exponential time decay models and the model parameters were evaluated. The approximate diffusion and logarithmic models were found to match the experimental data very closely with the maximum Root Mean Square Error ( RMSE) less than 0.02. Considering fewer differences in the model evaluation factors and friendly use, logarithmic model was recommended for modelling canola drying. The experimental data were also modelled using Fick's diffusion equation, the effective diffusivity coefficients having been found to be from 3.76 x 10(-11) m(2)/s to 8.46 x 10(-11) m(2)/s in the range of experimental data covered in the present study. For the process, the activation energy was calculated to be 11.03 kJ/mol assuming an Arrhenius type temperature reliance.