Parameters Effecting on Head Brown Rice Recovery and Energy Consumption of Rubber Roll and Stone Disk Dehusking

Abstract

Application of improper methods on rice processing affects rice quality and head rice recovery. In Vietnam, paddy with different moisture contents (from 13% to 17%) is dehusked by both rubber roll and stone disk. Thus, objective of this research was to evaluate the technical and economic aspects of the two methods. Optimization was conducted with 20 experiments for input factors (moisture content) and output factors (head brown rice recovery, specific energy consumption). Besides, other factors were also monitored, such as the gap between the two disks, speed of disk and roll, and pressure of rubber roll on paddy. Test results showed that the maximum value of head brown rice (77.4%) and the minimum value of specific energy consumption (0.66 kWh/ton) corresponding to moisture content of paddy of 13.7% for stone disk dehusker. At similar moisture content (13.7%), head brown rice recovery and specific energy consumption were 77.2% and 1.04 kWh/ton for rubber roll dehusker, respectively. As the result, specific energy consumption of rubber roll dehusker was higher than that of stone disk dehusker, corresponding to the higher dehusking efficiency.