Drying characteristics of corn in high voltage electric field

The internal moisture in corn exists in the states of free water and bound water. The aim of this study was to investigate the dehydration rate of corn by changing the stacking thickness of corn, the density of needle electrode and the electric field intensity in a high voltage needle-disk electric field drying system, as well as to analyze the difference between the traditional natural air drying and hot air drying methods. The results indicated that the dehydration rate increased and then decreased with the increase of the density of needle electrode. Perhaps the reason was that when the density of the electrode was small, effective electric field intensity was not able to cover all the material. In conclusion, the high voltage electric field drying is suitable for drying the thicker materials which can effectively reduce the drying space and workload, as well as improve the efficiency of drying.