M. Ghasemi Varnamkhasti, H. Mobli, A. Jafari, M. Heidari Soltanabadi, Sh. Rafiee,
Volume 12, Issue 44 (summer 2008)
Abstract
Rice whitening is an important stage in rice milling process and improvement of the whitener machines has a remarkable effect on rice loss. To decrease the amounts of broken rice and losses, the rotor of the blade whitener was equipped with screw conveyor. To investigate the effects of rotor speed (in four levels: 600, 700, 800 and 900 rpm) and output rate (in three levels: 400, 500 and 600 kg/h) on quality of milled rice, a factorial design with randomized complete block experiments with three replications were conducted. In this study, Sorkheh variety (a medium rice variety), which is one of the prevailing varieties in Esfahan, was used. The results showed that the lowest breakage percentage (20.92%) occurred at rotor speed of 700 rpm with an output rate of 600 kg/h and the best degree of milling (6.33%) took place at rotor speed of 600 rpm with an output rate of 400 kg/h. The best rice quality (low broken rice and high degree of milling) was observed at rotor speed of 600 rpm with 500 kg/h output rate.
