Post Harvest Engineering of Cereals, Pulses & Oil Seeds

Introduction to Food Grains: structure and chemical composition of cereals, pulses and oilseeds. Applications of unit operations and principles in cleaning and grading, aspiration, scalping, Drying: moisture and its removal, utilities, M.C. determination methods: direct and indirect methods, EMC: its importance, Determination methods, EMC models, Hysteresis effects, Psychrometric chart. Drying methods: Traditional &Mechanical drying, Thin layer drying, Deep bed drying, Drying rate periods. Principles and operation of different types of dryers.

Size separators, screens, sieve analysis, capacity and effectiveness of screens. Various types of separators: specific gravity, magnetic, disc, spiral, pneumatic, inclined draper, velvet roll, colour sorters, cyclone, shape graders. Size reduction: principle, Bond’s law, Kick’s law, Rittinger’s law, procedure (crushing, impact, cutting and shearing), and Size reduction machinery: Jaw crusher, Hammer mill, Plate mill, Ball mill. Material handling equipment. Types of conveyors: Belt, roller, chain and screw. Elevators: bucket, Cranes, Pneumatic conveying.

Legumes Processing: Pretreatment of pulses for milling, Methods of milling of pulses, Factors affecting milling of pulses, Pulse based processed products. Oilseeds Processing for Oil Extraction: Preparation of oilseeds, Mechanical and Solvent extraction methods of oil extraction, Oil refining, hydrogenation, Utilization of de-oiled cake.

Processing of Wheat: Structure of wheat grain, Wheat milling- basic concepts, products and by-products, Flour milling, Turbo grinding and air-classification, Flour grades and their suitability for baking purposes.

Paddy milling: Milling of Paddy- basic concepts, traditional and modern methods of milling, Parboiling techniques. Corn milling: Dry and wet milling of corn, corn starch and its conversion products.