Effect of different stationary sources of air heating on grain drying and storage duration on grain physical and technological quality

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the physical and technological quality of maize grains subjected to drying with different stationary sources of air heating and stored for nine months. The grains were derived from the Experimental Station of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul’s experimental farm, and dried to humidity of approximately 12% as follows: natural air drying, drying with the use of LPG and solar drying. The analysis of humidity, specific weight, thousand grains weight and integers were performed after sample drying and every three months up to nine months of storage and were conducted at the Plant Protection Department of the Federal School of Agronomy. The results allowed us to conclude that the greatest losses occurred after six months of storage for all treatments, mainly due to the attack of insects of the Sitophilus genus, showing that the three fuels used for drying proved to be viable in terms of keeping the grain physical and technological quality.