Paddy Rice Milling

Paddy is the seed of certain variety of grass of Gramineae family. Botanical name of paddy is Oryza Sative L.Oryza sativa is further divided into three sub- species viz. Javanica, Japonica and Indica. India and tropical Asian countries cultivate mostly Indica species. Today rice has become one of the most important and major food grains of the world. Nearly 1/2 to 2/3 of total world population has partially or totally adapted rice as their main food. Asians meet half of their daily energy requirements through intake of rice. Most of the protein needs are meet through rice only. The paddy grains is a living matter and represent a colloidal capillary porous body. It contains large amount of micro and macro capillaries through which water can move out or inside of the grain surface.

Paddy grain structure is shown in 5.20.it comprises of palea and lemma, two halves of the seed cover known as husk or hull and bottom portion known as empty glume which keeps palea and lemma in position. Rice kernel remains covered under the husk . Paddy undergoes certain processing treatments prior to its conversion into edible form. The various unit operations are cleaning, drying, storage, parboiling (optional )

and milling. The edible portion of paddy is called rice. The kernel is enclosed by hull or hull is 18-22%of the total weight of paddy grain. The endosperm weights about 70 to72%, whereas 4-6%bran is removed during polishing. Paddy in India is traditions milled in hullers. Engleberg huller removes husk and bran together, hence the by products are mixed. With huller removes husk and bran together, hence the by products are mixed. With hullers the degree of polishing can not be controlled to desired level. Use of India promulgated the rice milling industries registries and licensing Act in 1959,according to which the which the use of Engleberg hullers was banned for shelling paddy. Clean and good quality paddy can give an yield of 74% rice. But due to several reasons it has not been possible to achieve 74% yield of rice by traditional methods and machines. Use of modern machines like rubber roll sheller along with improved methods

of drying, paddy separation, bran removal and graders can give higher out turn. The various unit operations and equipment used in a modern rice mill are given below. Cleaning/ cleaner Shelling/ rubber roll sheller Husk separation/ husk aspirator : : for removing foreign matter from paddy for separating husk from the paddy grain.

: for separation of husk from the product obtained from sheller .

Paddy separation/ paddy separator : for separation of paddy from brown rice Bran removal/ polisher/ whitener : for removal of bran layers from brown rice

Bran aspiration/bran aspirator

: for removal of bran adhering to the rice kernel

Grading /grader

for separation of broken rice from head rice

Handing equipment

for conveying of paddy- rice to various processing units.

In the following figure a basic flow chart of rice processing in a modern mill is given. Paddy storage cleaner Dryer

Sheller

Husk aspirator Brokens

Grader

Head rice

paddy

Paddy separator

Bagging/ Storage

Bran aspirator

Whitener/ polisher

Brown rice

Paddy cleaning: Cleaning of paddy is the first operation of paddy rice milling. Cleaning adds to the quality of paddy and it is desirable for further processing operation cleaning refers to removal of all types of foreign matters and other impurities. These

matters can cause damage to rice processing machines and their presence lower the quality of milled rice. The foreign matter can be grouped into following categories,(1) big impurities like stems, paddy ear heads, stones, iron pieces etc., (2)small impurities e.g. weed seeds, dust, mud particles etc. and (3)impurities of equal size as to paddy like immature grains, stones and other matters. For cleaning of paddy, generally the difference in physical properties of impurities and paddy are used e.g. size, weight or length of grains. Lighter foreign matters are removed or separated by air aspiration. While the bigger and smaller impurities from paddy are separated with the help of suitable screens. Impurities similar to the shape and size of paddy are broken during milling operation and then could easily

be separated from the rice. Impurities equal in both weight and size as paddy are difficult to separate by mechanical means.

Parboiling It is a premilling (optional) treatment given to paddy to its milling to achieve maximum recovery of head rice and to minimize breakage. Parboiling treatment was first developed in some Asian countries to reduce the milling losses. In this process paddy is soaked and the wet paddy is heated and then dried. The paddy grains is mainly composed of polygonal starch granules. The voids or intergranular cause are filled with air and moisture. Due to these voids cracks develop and it cause breakage during milling. This breakage may be reduced by reduced by gelatinization the starch. During gelatinization process starch swells and fill the voids.

During soaking of paddy water penetrates into starch granules and results in swelling of grains. In heating the energy weakens the granule structure and more surface becomes available for water absorption and results in irreversible granule swelling. This phenomenon is called gelatinization of starch.

The main objectives of parboiling are (1) to increase the total and head rice yield of paddy (2) to prevent the loss of nutrients during milling, (3) to salvage wet or damaged paddy and (4) to mill the rice according to requirements of consumers.

Parboiling of paddy is carried out in three steps, (1) soaking,(2) steaming, and (3) drying (Fig.5.21). Theoretically soaking of paddy can be done at or below its gelatinization temperature. The lower the temperature used, slow is the process of soaking and voice versa. Soaking period cand be reduced by subjection the paddy to vacuum for a few minutes before soaking and / or soaking under pressure in hot water. Heat of gelatinization of starch is supplied by saturated stem. Parboiled paddy may be dried in the shade or in the sun or with hot air. Shade drying takes longer time but gives excellent milling qualities. Rapid drying in sun or with hot air caused higher breakage

during milling. The most convenient practices is to dry in two passes with a tempering period in the moisture range of 15 19 % (wet basis).

Advantage of parboling 1. The milling yield increases and the quality is improved, as there are fewer broker grains. 2. The grain structure becomes compact and vitreous, even if some kernels were entirely or partially chalky. 3. The milled rice becomes translucent and shining. 4. The shelf life of parboiled paddy and millea parboiled rice is longer than in the raw state, as germination is no longer possible and the kernel becomes hard enough to resist the attack by insects and to adsorption of atmospheric moisture. 5. The grains remain firmer during cooking and less likely to become sticky. 6. A greater amount of water is absorbs during cooking causing the rice to swell. 7. After cooking the rice absorbs less fat from added condiments, the rice keeps longer and does not become rancid easily. 8. Parboiled rice retains more proteins, vitamins and minerals. 9. Parboiled rice is more digestible and less solids are left behind in the cooking water. 10. Shelling of parboiled rice is easier. 11. Bran of parboiled rice has more oil.

Disadvantages of parboiling 1. The heat treatment during parboiling destroys some natural anti-oxidants, hence rancidity developed in parboiled rice during storage is more than that in raw rice. 2. Parboiled rice takes more time to cook than raw rice and may have characteristic off flavour which may not be liked by raw rice eaters. 3. Parboiling process needs extra capital investment. 4. Parboiling adds to the cost of drying.

5. As paddy is soaked for a longer time during parboiling, it may be attacked by spores which may cause health hazard. 6. More power is required for polishing of parboiled rice. The process becomes difficult and lowers the capacity of polisher.

Inspite of the above disadvantage 1 to 2 per cent extra rice is obtainable by parboiling than raw rice milling. In India if 50 % of the paddy production is converted into parboilird rice, it is possible to save about Rs. 1000 million by virtue of extra rice and its by products value.

Parboiling methods The methods of parboiling may be classified as under. A. Traditional methods: (i) (ii) single boiling double boiling

B. Modern methods (i) (ii) CFTRI method Jadavpur university method

Traditional methods The traditional process consists of soaking paddy in water at room temperature for 24-48 hours or more, steaming in kettles under atmospheric pressure and drying under the sun. In a single boiling method, paddy is soaked in ordinary water for 24 72 hours and them steamed. In double boiling method, stem is first injected in to raw paddy in the steaming kettle before soaking, Hot paddy raises the temperature of soaking water to 4550C then the raw paddy is put into it and in this case first steaming is not required.

Modern Methods Some of the earlier listed modern methods of parboiling are described below. 1. CFTRI method: In this process, parboiling tanks are filled with clean water and heated to a temperature of about 85 C by passing steam through the coils placed

inside the tank. Sometimes hot water is pumped from other sources into parboiling tanks. The resultant temperature of paddy water mixture in the tanks stays around 70 C. After soaking paddy for 3 to 3.5 hours, the water is drained out. The water discharge valve is kept open in order to remove condensed water during steaming. Soaked paddy is exposed to steam at a pressure of about 4kg/cm2 through the open stem coils. Soaking and steaming of paddy are done in the same tank. The parboiled paddy is taken out by opening the bottom door and dried either under sun or by a mechanical dryer.

2. Pressure parboiling method : This method of parboiling was developed at Tiruvarur in tamil nadu. The parboiling is achieved by penetration of moisture into the paddy in the form of water vapour under pressure. This result in gelatinization of starch of the kernel. The paddy is soaked for 40 minutes at 85 90 C. Thereafter it is steamed under pressure for 18 minutes. The water vapour which penetrates the kernel drives out entrapped air. It is reported that the whole process is completed in 1 to 1.5 hours. The rice obtained by this method has a pleasing and slightly yellowish uniform colour. Reduced soaking period of paddy is the main advantage of this method. It was also observed that such parboiled paddy has better shelling efficiency, has more fat in bran and increased storage life of rice grain.

Milling Milling of paddy is the major operation in paddy processing. It removes husk and outer layer of bran so as to produce acceptable white rice with minimum breakage and impurities. The following terminologies be known for better understanding of milling. 1. Head rice: It refers to the milled whole rice of 6/8 of the actual kernel size. 2. Broken rice: Rice kernels, which than 6/8 of the actual size are called broken rice. It is a further divided into three categories, (1) big brokens, these include 4/8 to 6/8 of kernel portion, (2) small brokens these include 1/8 to 4/8 parts of kernel and (3) points-lesser than 1/8 part of rice grain. 3. Total rice: It includes both head and broken rice.

Table 5.4 The advantage of improved paddy process equipment over huller Particulars parboiled rice Under runner disk sheller Additional rice obtainable 0.8 Over huller, % Decrease in broken rice 3.0 Fat in rice bran 20.24 rubber roll sheller 1.6 4.4 23.27 Raw rice rubber roll rubber roll sheller sheller 4.1 6.6 8.9 15.17 15.0 18.2

The main objective of milling is to obtain maximum head rice with minimum bran and foreign matter. Breakage of rice mainly occurs during milling

operation therefore, it is of great importance to the rice industry. Due to bad milling, breakage may be as high as half of the total rice. If has been reported that if the total efficiency of rice milling operation is increased by 2%,1.2 million tonnes of extra rice can be made available in India. Most of the paddy in our country is being milled by rice hullers, and the losses due to hullers are estimated to about 5%Moreover hullers give a mixture of rice husk and bran as product, hence it prohibits its economical use. The advantages of improved paddy milling equipment over huller is given in Table 5.4

Milling Equipment In some rice growing area rice milling is accomplished by primitive methods such as pounding the paddy in a wooden mortar and pestle followed by winnowing. It is estimated that in India 1/3 of the total paddy production is processing by hand pounders and foot pounders (fig.5.24). Due to impact of the pounder, rice breaks and the polish assumed by the grains is non uniform. Rice and bran get mixed with the husk and a portion of them is lost along with it in the process of separation thereby resulting in low milling yield. Labour requirements in above methods of milling is

simple and no mechanical or electrical power is required, and pounders Can be easily fabricated in villages.

Power operated milling equipments are described below. Hulling: the purpose of hulling machine is to remove the husk from the paddy grain with minimum damage to the bran layer and as far as possible not to break the bromn rice.

Due to surface characteristic of paddy it is necessary to apply friction to the grain to remove the husk. Therefore, during hulling, certain percentage of broken. Can not be avoided. In this respect the operation govern the optimum performance and efficiency of machine and head rice production.

The adjustment of hulling machine depends upon the variety and uniformity of grain. Its uniformity is necessary for best performance of equipment.

Huller The most common machine used for paddy hulling in India is Engleberg huller. The working element of this machine is a ribbed cast iron roller. The roller rotates on its axis inside a large concentric cylinder. On the inner cast iron roller, spiral ribbed strips are mounted to part of the length and on remaining part 4 to 6 straight ribbed strips strips are mounted (fig.5.25). The outer cylinder is made in two parts. The bottom half is fabricated by perforated mild steel sheet and can be changed as per requirement. While hulling, the husk and bran are removed though. The ribbed roller is rotated at 600 to 900rpm. Paddy is fed into the hopper and due to rotational direction of the flutes, it is moved around the cylinder and finally towards the outlet. Friction between the grains and the steel parts of the huller causes the husk and bran to be scrapped off. The huller does the job of husking and bran removal simultaneously, thus mixes the bran and brokens with hust. It is difficult to separate these ingredients, therefore, the mixture can not be used for oil extraction and is sold as cattle feet.

A steels blade is provided which can be moved in or out of the casing. Clearance between the blade and ribbed roller decidea frictional forces generated on the grains. Friction between the grains and the steel parts of the huller causes the husk and bran to be scrapped off. The capacities of huller varies from 250to750 kg/hour. The average yields obtainable from huller is about 56% and 62-64% for raw rice and parboiled rice respectively. It generates around 25to 30% brokers. The initial investment of huller is low and requires little space and can be installed in simple structures. The machine can be locally fabricated and a semiskilled person can operate the huller. But its power requirement per unit rice. Polishing of rice with huller can not be effectively controlled. As stated earlier because a mixture of husk and bran is obtained this by product can not be used economically. Under runner disk huller The under runner disk huller consists of two horizontal cast iron disk partly covered with an abrasive layer preferably of emery. The top dick is fixed with the body of the machines, while the bottom disk rotates. The rotating disk is vertically adjustable by which clearance between the two disks is adjusted (fig.5.26). As per the variety and condition of paddy, the clearance is decided. The condition of abrasive coating on the disks also affect the clearance. Paddy is fed into equipment from top though a hopper. With an adjustable sleeve uniform flow of paddy is maintained . which also spreads paddy evenly to entire surface of the rotating dick. By centrifugal force the paddy is forced between the disk and dehusking takes place due to friction and pressure. During hulling there is wear of abrasive coating and is not uniform over the entire surface of the coating. Hulling is mainly concentrated at the centre, there fore, after sometime a ridge is formed at the outer ring of the coating. The ridge causes excessive pressure on the paddy and grain breaks during hulling. The huller shaft is normally driven by a flat or V-belt transmission. While driving the disk huller with flat belt, care must be taken to ensure that the pulling park of the best should be perpendicular to the main transmission shaft. If such conditions are maintained, the huller will consume less energy.

Edible grade oil can be extracted from the bran obtained from disk huller. The machine has longer life and the operating cost is low. Parboiled paddy can also be processed by this machine. The total and head rice recoveries and lesser than what is obtainable by rubber roll sheller, The capacities and power requirements of under runner disk presented in table 5.5 huller are

Table 5.5 Capacities and power requirements of under- runner disk huller Disk diameter , mm capacity, kg paddy/ hr Horsepower requirement 750 450-600 3.0 1000 700-1000 3.5 1250 1000-1400 4.0 1400 1600-2100 5.5

Centrifugal Dehusker centrifugal dehusker shells paddy due to impact. The paddy grains are subjected to a centrifugal force by means of a rotating impeller with a rotational impeller with a rotational speed ranging between 2005- 3000 rpm. It creates an impact force sufficient to shell paddy grains. Casing of the dehusker is lined with a rubber sheet (fig.5.27). The paddy is fed to the centre of the rotor form which is thrown towards the casing with great force and is shelled upon hitting. The salient features of the centrifugal dehusker are, its high capacity and simple construction, because there is only one moving part the impeller. Heating of grain does not takes place as there is no grinding or friction action.

The initial cost of the machine and the operational cost is low. It requires less power, 1hp/ 500 kg paddy dehusking per hour. The total and head rice yield is more than the hullers. The machine needs adjustment according to paddy variety and increased shelling leads to increased breakage of grains.

Rubber Roll Sheller Rubber roll Sheller consists of two rubber rolls rotating in opposite direction at different speeds. A feeder feeds paddy uniformly to the machine (fig.5.28). paddy is fed in thin layer between the rotating roll by the feeder. One of the roll is fixed while the other is adjustable to obtain desired clearance between them. The roll are drive mechanically and the adjustable roll normally runs about 25% slower than the fixed one. Difference in surface speeds of the rolls develop a shearing force on grain surface resulting in the opening and breaking of husk. The clearance should be about half the thickness of paddy and may be adjusted subsequently by judging the shelling efficiency. If the gap between rolls is properly adjusted, this requirement can shell upto 95% of paddy fed to it. At decreased gap excess pressure results which cause more breakage of grain and can also cause coloring of shelled rice. In the modern machines, the gap between the rolls is adjustable by suction methods, therefore as per need this gap is automatically maintained. During shelling the faster roll 8-10m/s. The details of speeds, diameter, capacity and power requirement of the rolls are given in Table 5.6 and 5.7 Table 5.6 The details of speeds of rubber rolls Rubber-roll diameter,mm rpm 150 220 250 64 76 250 1320 1200 1000 900 900 740 Width of roll,mm Faster roll, rpm Slowerroll,

Table 5.7 The capacities and power requirements of various sizes of rubber-roll Diamension of rubber-roll, mm Size 4 6 10 length 100 150 254 diameter 220 220 254 capacity, t/hr long-grain 0.9 1.2 2.2 short-grain 1.25 1.90 3.80 2.5 4.0 6.0 Horse power requirement,hp

Constrains of rubber-roll sheller To obtain optimum hulling efficiency or performance, the gain should be evenly distributed over the full width of the rolls. In case of non-uniform distribution, roll surface wears out unevenly (Fig.5.29). This adversely affect the efficiency and capacity of the machine. Effect of paddy varieties and environment conditions on performance of rubber roll surface have been studied. Long paddy varieties increased wear of roll surfaces. A pair of rubber rolls in Japan can dehusk 200 tonnes of short variety of paddy, whereas the same pair can dehusk only 100 tonnes of paddy in tropical climate (high temperature and high humidity ). Although the quality of rubber can be improved to increase the durability of roll in terms of tones of paddy hulled, but the cost incurred will be much more than the additional output. Efforts therefore be made to improve the quality of rubber roll as well as to reduce its cost so as to made it attractive for the millers.

Horizontal abrasive whitener The machine consists of an abrasive roll operating in a cylindrical metal perforated screen which is horizontally mounted (Fig.5.36). the screen cylinder covers the emery roll leaving an uniform gap where brown rice is fed through a small screw conveyor. the emery roll ratites while the screen cylinder remains stationary. polishing is obtained due to rubbing of grains with emery roll, screen and rice grain. At the delivery end of polishing chamber one adjustable weight is placed by which degree of polishing is controlled. adjustable brakes are also fitted to screen cylinder, to help in obtaining required polishing. Bran removed form rice escapes through holes and is aspirated out by a blower. The blower which collects and screen cage.

Jet pearler The jet pearler is used to remove the final part of the bran layer and simultaneously cool the grain through an air stream of ambient temperature.

It consists mainly of a horizontal partly hollow perforated shaft on which a cast steel cylinder with friction ridges is clamped (Fig.5.37.). Just behind the two ridges the cylinder has a long opening which allows the passage for air. this cylinder runs inside a hexagonal chamber consisting of two halves hexagonal screens with slotted perforations. A feeding screw with horizontal shaft feeds the rice into the press chamber of the machine. The clearance between the hexagonal screen and the cast steel cylinder is adjustable by a screw controlling the distance between the two halves of the screen. The rice produced by this machine is free from bran and cool. However, for medium and long grain varieties its performance is not as good as for short grain varieties and there is considerable increase in brokens.

Rice polishers In some markets there is demand for a glossy and highly polished rice. for this, rice polishers are used after whiteners. two types of polishing machines are in use as under.

Vertical polishing cone It is a similar machine as the vertical whitening cone. the basic differences between the two are that in polishing, (1) the cone is made of steel and is covered with wood on which leather strips have been nailed, (2) no rubber brakes are used (Fig 5.38), and (3) the speed of rotation of the cone is about 25% lower than the whitening cone.

The horizontal polisher It consists of a steel cylinder on which a large number of leather strips are screwed (Fig.5.39). the cylinder is mounted on a horizontal shaft that rotates inside a cylindrical chamber covered with slotted perforated screen. the leather strips roll the whitened rice over and over against the screen. Under slight pressure, the remaining bran is removed and the rice becomes shiny and glossier. this machine produces few brokens. Its power requirement is 30 to 40% less than that of whiteners.