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Title: HANDLING EFFECTS ON COMMINGLING AND RESIDUAL GRAIN IN AN ELEVATOR

Author
item INGLES, M - KANSAS STATE UNIV
item Casada, Mark
item MAGHIRANG, R - KANSAS STATE UNIV

Submitted to: Transactions of the ASAE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/2003
Publication Date: 11/1/2003
Citation: Ingles, M.E., Casada, M., Maghirang, R.G. 2003. Handling effects on commingling and residual grain in an elevator. Transactions of the ASAE. 2003. 46(6):1625-1631.

Interpretive Summary: Fundamental data are needed that identify and quantify where commingling occurs during identity preserved grain handling at grain elevators so that grains with special desirable characteristics can be kept at a desirable level of purity. This study measured the level of commingling and the weight of residual grain left in equipment when receiving two different colors of corn at the research elevator facility of the USDA-ARS, Grain Marketing and Production Research Center (GMPRC), Manhattan, Kansas. In these tests only the first 15 bu of grain (approximately 1% of the leg rate per hour) were commingled at greater than a one-percent level. Only the first 40 bu of grain (approximately 2% of the leg rate per hour) were contaminated at greater than a half-percent level. In a standard operation with a small truckload (300 bu) of corn, the total commingling after the receiving pit and elevator boot amounted to 0.18% while commingling percentages with weighing scale, grain cleaner and grain scalper were 0.22%, 0.24%, and 0.01%, respectively. This information is needed by elevator operators to better segregate grain with desirable characteristics into separate channels for delivery to end-users. The information is also useful to grain processors for improving their handling of specialty grains.

Technical Abstract: Grain handers have responded to an increased use of specialty grain and resulting need for grain segregation without the benefit of experimental data in the literature quantifying commingling that may occur during grain handling. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of handling equipment on commingling and residual grain at an average grain flow rate of 47 t/h (1852 bu/h) in the research elevator at the USDA-ARS, Grain Marketing and Production Research Center in Manhattan, Kansas. Tests were done by first moving white corn through selected pieces of cleaned elevator equipment followed by moving yellow corn through the same equipment without any special clean out between the two operations. Commingling was calculated as the percentage of white kernels mixed in the yellow corn samples collected at selected time intervals during the second operation. Commingling was greater than 1% during no more than the first 30 sec and always decreased to less than 0.5% within the first metric ton of load (76 sec) for all tested equipment. The highest cumulative commingling for the entire test of one truckload (ca. 7.3 t) was 0.24% for the grain cleaner. Mean cumulative commingling values for the other handling equipment were 0.18%, 0.22% and 0.01% for the combined effect of dump pit and boot, weighing scale, and grain scalper, respectively. The residual grain obtained from cleaning the equipment after the test was highest at the elevator boot (120 kg), followed by the receiving pit at 20 kg. The amounts of residual grain collected from the weighing scale, grain cleaner, and grain scalper were negligible by comparison.