An Analysis of the Spelt Dehulling Process in a Cylinder Separator

Abstract

Spelt is one of unprofitable wheat types and requires an additional hulling process, in which the husks are removed from the grain. A device for dehulling spelt kernels was proposed. The described solution consists of a stainless-steel wire mesh cylinder with 4×20 mm and 4×30 mm longitudinal openings and a rotor with adjustable blade angles. Kernels were dehulled at the following angular speeds of the shaft: 16.76, 23.04, 29.32, 35.60, and 41.89 rad·s⁻¹, and the following rotor blade angles: 50°, 60°, 70°, 80°, and 90°. The efficiency of glume and glumelle removal, the proportion of damaged kernels, and kernel and husk separation efficiency were evaluated during the experiment. The highest of kernel separation efficiency η _z was 81.86% using a wire mesh cylinder with 4×30 mm longitudinal openings and 81.60% for a wire mesh cylinder with 4×20 mm longitudinal openings.