Drying Kinetics and Physicochemical Characteristics of Laboratory-Prepared Corn/Wheat Distillers Grains and Solubles Dried with Superheated Steam and Hot Air

Abstract

The effect of superheated steam (SS) drying and hot air (HA) drying on drying kinetics and changes in the color, crude protein, and amino acid concentrations (in particular, lysine content) of corn/wheat wet distillers grains (WDG) and centrifuged solubles (CS) was evaluated. An inversion temperature was reached at 139°C for WDG and 132°C for CS, above which moisture evaporation rate and qualitative changes under SS drying conditions exceeded the values noted in HA, and below which the reverse was observed. A significant decrease (from 8 to 50%) in the lysine content of WDG and CS was reported during SS and HA. The overall changes in the color (ΔE*) of corn/wheat WDG and CS ranged from 7.9 ± 2.6 to 27.2 ± 1.9 during SS drying and from 11.9 ± 3.7 to 32.0 ± 0.5 during HA drying. The observed deterioration in color was attributed mainly to changes in lightness (L*) and yellowness (b*) of dried samples. The values of L* and b* were reliable predictors of the lysine content of corn/wheat distillers co-products.