Secagem da Castanha-do-Brasil em condições de floresta e carbonização do resíduo do fruto da castanheira

• Autor(a) principal: Nogueira, Roberta Martins
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/702
• topic: Castanha-do-Brasil; Brazil-nut; CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::ENGENHARIA AGRICOLA

The Brazil-nut, also known as Para-nut, is very used as food, which is produced by a tree from family of Lecythidaceae, species Bertholettia excelsa. It is a tree symbol of the Amazon biome, being found in all states of this region. The fruits of Brazil-nut are called hedgehogs and it is contained 12 to 25 seeds. The seeds are rich in lipids (60%) and protein (13%), having also a considerable amount of selenium, which is a antioxidant that acts on free radicals and as a regulator of the gland thyroid. Being a product typically extractive, the studies are quite scarce, especially about post-harvest. It is worth mentioning that product is a very susceptible to fungus growth and mycotoxins, particularly aflatoxin. This is due to conditions of high humidity and temperature at which the product is subjected in its post-harvest, those conditions are typical from this biome origin. Another important point in the culture of Brazil-nut is the economic issue that directly involves the population linked to the extraction of fruit, knowing that the pay received by extraction is very low, which hampers the implementation of post-harvest technologies to ensure safe food production. Thus, adding value to production and utilization of residues from the process emerges as a perceived need. Thus, this work had the follow objectives: to determine the physical properties of the Brazil-nut with and without tegument; develop and validate a system for drying the Brazil-nuts at forest conditions, and, adapting a methodology for producing charcoal from the hedgehog Chestnut, consistent with the level of extractive technology. The size for almonds with tegument was 39.35 mm in the X axis, Y axis 24.19 mm and 17.88 mm in the Z axis, however for the almond without tegument the values were 31.05 mm in X, Y and 14.38 15.91 mm in Z. The circularity was 66.40% and 51.59% for the kernels with and without seed tegument, respectively. 3.00% and 47.72% were found as values of sphericity for the kernels with and without seed coat, respectively. The mass of 1000 almonds was 6.13 kg for almond-coats and 3.18 kg for coat almonds. Specific mass of 0.947g.cm-3 and 1.003g.cm-3 for the kernels with and without coat, coupled with a porosity of 46.88% and 37.60%, yielded a bulk density of 0.504g.cm-3 and 0.626g.cm-3. Finally, the angle of repose for the kernels with testa was 36.37°. The drying system as proposed by the natural convection operating with the hedgehog of the Brazil-nut, with overall dimensions of 2.0 m long X 1.0 m wide X 1.7 m high, composed of the following modules: furnace, heat exchanger, plenum chamber, drying chamber and chimney. The results obtained with the proposed dryer were considered good, when one considers that the aspect ruggedness, ease of construction and operation as well as the cost factor. Already the coal produced by the method of the drum quality was considered for commercial use or domestic, but further work should find a way to increase productivity reactor.