Criteria for assessing the grain stream immersion in an aqueous salt solution

Abstract

One of the most important foodstuffs for human is grain. In the grain heap delivered from combine harvesters to the post-harvest processing points, in addition to the grain of the main crop, various impurities, including poisonous ones, are also contained. Poisonous impurities include ergot sclerotia. The use of modern grain cleaning machines does not give positive results when cleaning grain material from ergot due to the proximity of its properties and the properties of the crop being cleaned. Cleaning of seeds from ergot sclerotia having a density lower than grain density is possible in aqueous solutions of inorganic salts. In order to develop a device for cleaning grain material by density using a wet method, practical experiments were carried out on immersion of Falenskaya 4 varieties of winter rye grain in a solution of sodium chloride (NaCl) with a density of ρl = 1030 and 1060 kg/m3 and water (ρl = 1000 kg/m3) at a specific grain load gsp = 97.975 kg/(s·m2). One of the criteria for assessing the effective height of the loading hopper location relative to the surface of an aqueous salt solution in the tank of a device for separating harmful impurities from a grain material by a wet method is the proportion Rg of grains that did not drown and floated to the solution surface with air bubbles. It was found that the minimum values of Rg are at a grain supply height h = 40…60·10-3 m. Moreover, the proportion of non-drowned grains Pg, even with forced exposure to them, is the loss of grain to waste.