Cereal Chem 51:1 - 16.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
The Absorption of Water by Ground Barley Malt.

P. J. Meddings and O. E. Potter. Copyright 1974 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Measurements have been made of the uptake of water vapor by malt particles. The diffusivities determined for the vapor system are not highly temperature-dependent. Diffusion coefficient, D = 1.6 x 10(-8) cm.2 sec.-1 at 20 C. and activation energy, E = 6.22 kcal. mole-1. Measurements have also been made of the rate of absorption of liquid water by malt particles. The rapid inital uptake of liquid water seems to be a combination of surface capillary absorption and rapid diffusion into surface excrescences which provide relatively high surface areas. The diffusion coefficient for liquid water, D = 3.6 x 10(-7) cm.2 sec.-1 while the activation energy was zero. The data of Fan, Chu, and Shellenberger for popcorn were recalculated and gave almost identical results to those obtained with sieved malt fractions.