Journal of Food Engineering 49 (2001) 303309

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Modeling and control of a mixed-ow rice dryer with emphasis on breakage quality
F. Courtois *, M. Abud Archila, C. Bonazzi, J.M. Meot, G. Trystram
Food Engineering, ENSIA-INRA, 1 Avenue des Olympiades, Massy, Paris 91744, France

Abstract The rice kernel is modelled as a two water compartment system and as a whole concerning heat and quality. The external transfers are governed by Fick and Fourier laws. The compartmental approach is mainly used to render the internal resistance in the most ecient way on the computer. Mass transfer coecients were adjusted with the help of constant condition drying kinetics. A primary validation of the model was observed when compared to experimental kinetics with transient phenomena. A secondary validation was done at the thick layer level. A simple PI controller with system linearization was designed and tested on the simulator. The latest results concern the simulation of a large scale semi-industrial dryer for both steady and transient states. The controller was tested successfully on the simulator. Results have shown a robust behaviour for such a non-linear system. On the other hand, performance is highly dependant upon the dryer setpoint. Previous work on corn dryers has shown that improving this performance wasn't realistic for practical reasons (e.g. lack of knowledge about the zeros of the system). The resulting model, in its two (steady and transient state) versions, is available as a cross-platform software and also on internet. The validity range for the model is 1580 Celsius, 0100%HR and 01 m/s. 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Drying; Model; Simulation; Internet; Rice; Breakage quality

1. Introduction Rice is one of the most important food items in the world. Millions of people are eating rice as their primary source of nutrition. Usually, the grain is harvested humid and needs additional drying to be stored safely. In developed countries, this drying is done articially in very large dryers with somewhat high temperatures. Unfortunately, rice kernels can be damaged by this heat exposure and later be broken when processed. Bonazzi et al. (1994) and Abud Archila, Courtois, Bonazzi, and Bimbenet (1998) describe the methodology used to characterize the quality damages caused by the drying process on the grain. Basically, the head rice yield is dened as the mass of all grains still intact divided by the initial mass of the sample before milling. It is expressed as a percentage (or as a decimal value) and should be as high as possible. According to Sud Cereales company, the selling price may be ten times lower if the grain is highly broken. It comes from the redirection of the dried grain from the consumer market to the animal food market.
*

The purpose of this work was to build up a model that could simulate any kind of rice dryer. The ability to simulate precisely the breakage ratio caused by the dryer was considered as a leading objective. 2. Material and methods 2.1. Drying apparatus The thin-layer and deep-bed dryers located in ENSIA's drying laboratory are described in Courtois, Lebert, Duquenoy, Lasseran, and Bimbenet (1991). The actual drying range covered by the thin-layer kinetics was [0.51 m s1 , 080%RH, 2080C]. The large-scale, semi-industrial, dryer (Fig. 1) located in the CIRAD's hall of technology (formerly at the ITCF institute) is described in Courtois (1991) and Courtois (1995). It is composed of ve drying cases and one cooling case. Total height is about 5 m, one fourth of a typical industrial dryer. Two grain online moisture meters were located at the input and output of the dryer for control purpose. Based on capacitive technology and initially designed for harvesting machines, their precision was quite low. In parallel, regular sampling was used to measure precisely moisture content of grains.

Corresponding author. Fax: +33-1-6993-5185. E-mail address: courtois@ensia.inra.fr (F. Courtois).

0260-8774/01/$ - see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 6 0 - 8 7 7 4 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 2 2 7 - 2

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Fig. 1. Overview of the CIRAD's dryer, its handling system and the location of the on-line moisture content sensors.

2.2. Product Rough rice grains were mechanically harvested at about 21% w.b. Ariete variety, grown in Camargue region, south of France, was mainly used. Selective sorting, grain-by-grain, allowed to separate green and empty grains from mature grains. Grains were then vacuum packed at ambient temperature and stored in the dark. Regular sampling ensured that moisture content of the grains did not vary and that no mould developed. AFNOR standard procedure was used to determine the moisture content of the rough rice. About 5 g of crushed grains were dried in an oven at 130C during 2 h. For moisture contents higher than 17% w.b., a pre-drying was necessary (AFNOR, 1976). 2.3. Quality evaluation Rice quality was estimated through the head rice yield (%) after milling on a rice processing pilot unit. Samples of 100 g of rough rice grains were hulled in a husker with two rubber disks and milled on an abrasive cone. The head rice yield was calculated as the ratio between the milled head rice mass and milled rice total mass. ``Head rice'' denotes grains whose length is still higher than three-fourths of their initial value.

3. Model description As described in Courtois (1991) and Courtois et al. (1991), a compartmental approach was used. The principle is described in Fig. 2. Basically this modeling approach is preferred for its ability to represent conveniently many phenomena, its fast computing speed, its physical backgrounds and its minimal parameterization. The heat and mass balances, for the thin-layer, are described as follows (constants are shown on Table 1): dX1 b 1 X2 X1 ; dt qdm s1 dX2 b b2 S 1 X2 X1 Pva Pv2 ; dt qdm s2 Vg qdm s2  dTg qdm Cdm Cw X dt aS bS Tair Tg 2 Pva Pv2 Lv; Vg Vg 1 2

where X1 and X2 are the grain moisture contents of compartment #1 and #2 (kg of water per kg of dry matter), Tg and Tair are the grain and air temperatures (C), Pv2 and Pva are the partial pressures of vapor in compartment #2 and in the air (Pa). The partial pressure of vapor in surface compartment (#2) is dened as

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Fig. 2. Principle of the compartmental approach in modeling. The grain is seen as two tanks in series. Table 1 Thermal and physical properties of rice grain and moist air Cdm J kg1 C1 qdm kg m3 s1 S=Vg m2 m3 Cpv J kg1 C1 Cpw J kg1 C1 Lv (J kg1 ) 1300.0 1500.0 0.6 2000.0 2030.0 4210.0 2357000.0 Valdez Fragoso, 1994 Valdez Fragoso, 1994 s2 1 s1 Du Peuty Charbonnier, 1995 Caloric capacity of the dry matter Density of the dry matter Volume ratio for compartment # 1 Surface to volume ratio for one grain Caloric capacity of vapor Caloric capacity of water Latent heat of vaporization

Pv2 Pvsat Tg AwX2 ; Tg and the water activity Aw given by X2 0:319 0:0493Ln1:8994:Tg 2:5457LnAw: This modied Pfost equation was obtained by Abud Archila (2000) and is valid within the range 0:03 < Aw < 0:97. Using a learning set of nine thin-layer kinetics in constant conditions, heat and mass transfer coecients were identied (4 parameters). b1 0:0156 exp0:2879Tg X kg m3 s1 b2 2:88 10
9

The DX X1 X2 term should be understood as an approximation of the moisture content gradient within the rice kernel. This term has a major inuence on the performance of the quality equation. As shown later, it allows to predict correctly the constant quality at high air temperatures and relative humidity. The adjusted activation energy Ea is very similar to values found in the literature (Aguerre, Suarez, & Viollaz, 1986). 4. Results

exp0:04112Ta kg m
2

Pa

a 65Lvb2 W m

The latter is obtained through the ChiltonColburn analogy. Thus there were only 4 parameters to adjust for the heat and mass transfer model. The integration of the thin-layer into a deep-bed model and then into the full-scale dryer model is not specic of this approach and, thus, one should refer to Courtois (1991) and Courtois (1995) for further details. It should be emphasized that the only adjustments were done for the thin-layer and with constant conditions kinetics. The equation accounting for the quality loss during drying is: dQ 5 KQ0 DX eEa=8:31=Tg 273:16 Q2 ; 4 dt where KQ0 5:7122 1026 and Ea 1:6432 105 J mol1 .

The heat and mass transfer model has been validated in a three-step procedure: thin-layer, deep-bed and fullscale dryer. Fig. 3 shows the good agreement between the simulated grain moisture content and the experimental values. The a & b plots are involving relaxation periods and changes of air temperature. Due to the diculty to obtain a reliable on-line measurement of the grain temperature, the comparison focuses only on the moisture content. All experimental kinetics were compared with the simulations and were validated for the thin-layer model. To obtain kinetics of quality loss during drying, a specic procedure was developed and validated. Since the evaluation of the quality implies a destructive sampling, several repetitions were needed to provide enough material for sampling with respect to the denition of the thin layer. It lead generally to three drying kinetics to obtain one quality kinetic. Fig. 4 shows an overall

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Fig. 3. Validation of the thin-layer model with dierent experiments in constant or variable (a&b) conditions (e.c. is the evaporation capacity of the air in g/kg).

Fig. 4. Validation of the quality equation (combined with the drying model) for several conditions (e.c. is the evaporation capacity of the air in g/kg). The experimental values are obtained by CIRAD milling system.

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comparison of simulated and experimental kinetics for several air conditions. There is quite a good agreement in most cases, especially when considering the important uncertainties on the experimental data due to the complexity of the procedure. It should be noted that the model simulates quite well the 60C, high and low evaporating capacities (129 and 4.5). This ability of the model to represent the eect of the evaporation capacity is interesting in order to optimize the dryers. It seems possible so to dry at high temperature without too much

quality damage if the evaporation capacity is kept low enough (i.e., high air relative humidity). At the deep-bed level, it is possible to compare the simulated and experimental outlet air temperature. Fig. 5 shows a good agreement between the model and the experiment for both the average grain moisture content and outlet air temperature. The validation of the deep-bed model permitted to rely more on the heat balance, and on the basic assumption that a deep-bed is a series of thin-layers.

Fig. 5. Comparison of simulated and experimental rice moisture content and outlet air temperature for a 0.12 m deep-bed drying at 60C, 1 m s1 and 0.010 kg/kg.

Fig. 6. Two main technologies of rice dryers in France (left: ``persiennes'', right: mixed-ow).

Fig. 7. The mixed-ow dryer is usually assumed to be an idealistic series of deep-beds alternatively co-current and counter-current.

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Fig. 8. The simulator is currently available on the Internet for the sole purpose of the setting of the CIRAD's rice dryer.

To simulate the full-scale industrial dryer, the work focused on the mixed-ow dryer more common in France than its competitor: ``persiennes'' (see Fig. 6). This kind of dryer is usually decomposed in elementary elements (boxes) which can be approximated by a series of deep-beds with successively co-current and counter current exchanges between air and grains (Fig. 7). The overall method consists thus of assembling thin-layer models into a deep-bed model, deep-bed models into a full-scale dryer. The resulting simulator was written in ANSI C under LINUX and is available over the Internet using any web browser (Fig. 8). The simulation time in most cases is less than a second. During the 1998 harvest, two weeks were dedicated to instrument the CIRAD dryer and to study the inuence of dierent set points on the nal quality of the rice. It generated some experimental data for a useful comparison with the model. Table 2 states clearly that the grain moisture content and temperature at the outlet is quite well predicted while the quality is somehow overestimated. It should be stated that the last experiment was run with bad quality rice which may explain a dierent behavior. Table 2 also conrms the possibility to dry at air temperatures as high as 80C without any quality loss. It is in perfect contradiction with recommendations from the operators in the south of France. For practical reasons (harvesting period too short in time), it was not possible to validate experimentally the automatic controller. Experimental validation has been done on this dryer for corn grain, in the past, by

Courtois, Nouafo, and Trystram (1995). Based on this work, the same strategy (Fig. 9) has been tested thoroughly by simulation. Due to the strong non-linearity of the system, a linearizing procedure coupling logarithm and inverse transformations with adaptive sampling time was applied. The core controller is a simple PI (Proportional Integral) with only two parameters easy to tune. Figs. 10 and 11 show the ability of the control system to follow a set point change in two dierent conditions. It

Table 2 Comparison of results obtained experimentally and as simulated by the modela Experiments Results (humidity, temperature, quality of dry grain) Experimental 200 kg/h, 50C, 15.9%, 21C 155 kg/h, 65C, 19C 260 kg/h, 65C, 19C, 0.63 250 kg/h, 80C, 23C, 0.58 120 kg/h, 70C, 25C, 0.60
a

Simulated 13.7%, 27.4C 12.5%, 32C 13.3%, 31C, 0.63 17.5%, 26C, 0.58 14%, 28C, 0.59

Grain Grain 16%, Grain 16%, Grain 22%, Grain 22%,

13.514%, 26C 11.912.6%, 30C 13.213.5%, 28C, 0.62 17%, 32C, 0.57 15%, 31C, 0.52

The quality damage is slightly underestimated by the model. Common characteristics: ambient air 20C, 0.010 d.b.; 5 drying stages; 1 cooling stage; air ow 189 m3 /h/stage.

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5. Conclusion A CAD simulator and a controller were developed. The rice kernel was modeled as a two-water compartment system and as a whole concerning heat and quality. The external transfers are governed by Fick and Fourier laws. Mass transfer coecients were adjusted with the help of constant condition drying kinetics. A primary validation of the model was observed when compared to experimental kinetics with transient phenomena. A secondary validation was done at the deep-bed level. A simple PI controller with system linearization was designed and tested on the simulator. The latest results concern the simulation of a largescale semi-industrial dryer for both steady and transient states. The controller was tested successfully on the simulator. Results have shown a robust behavior for such a non-linear system. The resulting model, in its two (steady and transient state) versions, is available as a cross-platform software and also on Internet. The validity range for the model is 1580C, 0100% HR and 01 m s1 . References
AFNOR (1976). Crales et produits craliers. Dtermination de la ee ee e teneur en eau. Norme NF V 03-707, France. Abud Archila, M. (2000). Simultaneous modelling of transport phenomena and head rice yield of rough rice for drying process optimization. PhD dissertation (in French), ENSIA, Massy, France, p. 119. Abud Archila, M., Courtois, F., Bonazzi, C., & Bimbenet, J. J. (1998). Kinetics of mechanical degradation of paddy rice during drying: inuence of process operation conditions and modelling for control design. Proceedings of the IDS'98 international drying symposium, Greece. Aguerre, R., Suarez, C., & Viollaz, P. E. (1986). Eect of drying on the quality of milled rice. Journal of Food Technology, 21, 7580. Bonazzi, C., Courtois, F., Geneste, C., Pons, B., Lahon, M.C., & Bimbenet, J.J. (1994). In V. Rudolph, & R. B. Keey (Eds.), Experimental study on the quality of rough rice related to drying conditions. Drying 94, pp. 10311036. Courtois, F. (1991). Dynamic modelling of drying to improve processing quality of corn, PhD thesis report, ENSIA, Massy, France. Courtois, F., Lebert, A., Duquenoy, A., Lasseran, J. C., & Bimbenet, J. J. (1991). Modelling of drying in order to improve processing quality of maize. Drying Technology, 9(4), 927945. Courtois, F. (1995). Computer-aided design of corn dryers with quality prediction. Drying Technology, 13(57), 11531165. Courtois, F., Nouafo, J. L., & Trystram, G. (1995). Control strategies for corn mixed-ow dryers. Drying Technology, 13(1 & 2), 147164. Du Peuty Charbonnier, M. A. (1995). Etude des transferts de chaleur et de masse en milieu granulaire: application au schage du riz e paddy. Thse de doctorat de l'universit de Poitiers, p. 205. e e Trelea, I. C., Courtois, F., & Trystram, G. (1997). Dynamics analysis and control strategy for mixed ow corn dryer. Journal of Process control, 7(1), 5764. Valdez Fragoso, A. (1994). Mesures des chaleurs spciques et des e masses volumiques d'aliments. Rapport de DEA de l'ENSIA, Massy, p. 46.

Fig. 9. Schematic of the closed loop. The controller combines a nonlinear transformation and a simple and linear PI controller.

X vs t 0.192 0.19 0.188 0.186 0.184 0.182 0.18 0.178 0.176 0.174 0 5 line 1 line 2 70 69 68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 0 5

Cycle vs t line 1 25.6 25.4 25.2 25 24.8 24.6 24.4 24.2 24 23.8 23.6 25 30 0 5

T vs t line 1

10 15 20 25 30 Q vs t

10

15

20

10 15 20 25 30 log(X) vs i

MFR vs t 112 110 108 106 104 102 100 98 96 line 1 -1.65 -1.66 -1.67 -1.68 -1.69 -1.7 -1.71 -1.72 -1.73 -1.74 -1.75 25 30

0.8002 0.8 0.7998 0.7996 0.7994 0.7992 0.799 0.7988 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 line 1

line 1 line 2

10

15

20

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Fig. 10. Simulation of a step change of the set point from 0.192 to 0.176, at 70C. (MFR: mass ow rate, time in hours, Cycle: time between 2 extractions in seconds, dashed line: set point). Results obtained with the simulator on the Internet.

X vs t 0.176 0.175 0.174 0.173 0.172 0.171 0.17 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Q vs t 0.81 0.808 0.806 0.804 0.802 0.8 0.798 0.796 0.794 0.792 0.79 0 5 124 line 1 122 120 118 116 114 112 110 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 line 1 line 2 60

Cycle vs t 24.9 line 1 59 58 57 56 55 54 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 24.8 24.7 24.6 24.5 24.4 24.3 0 5

T vs t line 1

10 15 20 25 30 log(X) vs i

MFR vs t -1.735 line 1 -1.74 -1.745 -1.75 -1.755 -1.76 -1.765 -1.77 10 15 20 25 30 0

line 1 line 2

10 20 30 40 50 60

Fig. 11. Simulation of a step change of the set point from 0.170 to 0.176, at 50C. (MFR: mass ow rate, time in hours, Cycle: time between 2 extractions in seconds, dashed line: set point). Results obtained with the simulator on the Internet.

has been found that relaxing the performance in terms of response time allows to have a very robust controller with only one set of parameters for the whole range of drying conditions. Results were found similar to those of Courtois et al. (1995) and Trelea, Courtois, and Trystram (1997) for corn: performance is highly dependent upon the dryer set point but improving this performance was not realistic for practical reasons (e.g., lack of knowledge about the zeros of the system).