Cereal Chem. 73 (1):51-53  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Engineering and Processing

Effect of Pump Rate and Table Slope on Starch Recovery for a 100-g Laboratory Wet-Milling Procedure.

S. K. Singh (1) and S. R. Eckhoff (2). (1) Former graduate research assistant, University of Illinois. Current address: Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011. (2) Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801. Corresponding author. E-mail: <sre@sugar.age.uiuc.edu> Accepted September 28, 1995. Copyright 1996 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

A replicated full-factorial experiment with four starch table slopes (0.0052, 0.0104, 0.0156, and 0.0208 cm/cm) and five pump rates (40, 45, 50, 55, and 60 ml/min) was used to determine the relationship between the table parameters of slope and slurry pumping rate and starch yield and the protein content of starch for a 2.44-m × 5.08-cm aluminum channel used as a starch table in a 100-g laboratory wet-milling procedure. The tests showed that both starch yield and the protein content in the starch decreased with increasing table slope and pumping rate. The rate of starch yield loss with increasing table slope and pumping rate was approximately linear. However, protein content of starch was relatively unaffected by table slope at slopes >0.0104 cm/cm. The lowest table slope (0.0052) had significantly more protein in the starch than did the other three table slopes tested. Selection of the appropriate table slope and pumping rate for use with the 100-g laboratory wet-milling procedure was based upon starch yield and protein in starch results from tabling the same starch slurry on an 8.3-cm × 6.1-m table as performed in a 1-kg laboratory wet-milling procedure. A table slope of 0.0104 cm/cm and a pumping rate of 50 ml/min was the combination that gave the starch yield (81.8 vs. 80.0%) and protein content in starch (0.50 vs. 0.52%) closest to those of the 1-kg tabling procedure.