Abstract

Author:
Mst. Taslema Nasrin, Motaharul Islam, Md. Mofizul Islam, Md. Sazzat Hossain Sarker

Doi: 10.26480/sfna.01.2022.40.45

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

An attempt was conducted taking three wheat varieties (BARI gom-24, Shatabdi, Bijoy) to investigate the application and suitability of single-stage fluidized bed drying for quality wheat seeds in terms of germination percentage. Drying of wheat seed was conducted in a fluidized bed dryer at three temperatures of 35°C, 40°C, and 45°C at a constant bed thickness of 13 cm and 4.5 m/s of air velocity. Total drying time required for drying of each variety 210 min (3.5hr), 150 min (2.5hr) and 80 min (1.3hr) at temperature 35°C, 40°C, and 45°C respectively for reduction of moisture from 16.98±0.15% to 12±0.1% wb. In contrast, sun drying (33±2°C) took 270 min (4.5 hr). It was shown, the drying time required in the fluidized bed drying method was almost 22-71% shorter than the sun drying method. The germination percentage was 94.67%, 97.33%, 88% for the variety “BARI gom-24” 93.67%, 97%, and 91.33% for the variety Shatabdi and 95%, 96.67%, 89.67% for the variety Bijoy while dried in a fluidized bed dryer at temperature 35°C, 40°C, and 45°C respectively. The germination percentage of sun-dried samples was 90.67% (BARI gom-24), 92.33%. (Shatabdi) and 92% (Bijoy). In the comparison of germination, wheat seed samples dried in the fluidized bed dryer at 35°C, 40°C showed a higher germination percentage than sun drying wheat seed samples. Therefore, the proposed drying technique does not only facilitate faster removal of moisture content, and also a higher germination percentage was found than the existing sun drying method. So, fluidized bed drying can be effective for wheat seeds in Bangladesh.