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Abstract. Auger conveyors (screw conveyors) are the most known tools for handling grain and feed on farms. Producers and grain management personnel usually use screw conveyors under ambient conditions. The principal objective of the current project is to explore the enhancement of the auger conveyor technology by externally heating the system to achieve a significant reduction of grain moisture content. The specific objectives include firstly, studying the effects of auger operating parameters and grain properties on the grain temperature inside the auger conveyor. Secondary, measuring the grain moisture reduction as affected by the auger operating parameters. Lastly, studying the effects of conveying rough rice in an externally heated auger conveyor on the rough rice quality as measured by the milled rice yield, the head rice yield, rice fissuring percentage, and the rice whiteness. The current paper focuses on the estimation of the grain temperature as affected by the auger wall temperature, the grain travel distance, the auger rotational speed, fullness factor, auger-housing diameter, grain bulk density, and heating zone length.

Increasing the auger wall temperature, the grain travel distance, and the grain residence time increased the grain temperature at the exit of the auger conveyor. The increase in the grain temperature will lead to higher moisture content reduction. On the other hand, increasing the auger rotational speed, the fullness factor, the auger-housing diameter, and the grain bulk density decreased the grain temperature at the exit of the grain auger conveyor. The decrease in grain temperature will undoubtedly result in a lower reduction of the grain moisture content. The preliminary experiments resulted in a maximum of 3.0% points moisture points reductions under a rotational speed of 0.83 rpm and auger wall temperature of 150 °C. The results of the current study are essential in the design process of a heated auger system, which could lead to substantial development of the grain conveying technology.