Evaluation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the corn drying process

Abstract

The pre-processing of agricultural products has great importance in the quality of the product, the most critical process, is the drying of grains, in which thermal energy is demanded. Since biomass burning produces polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can be associated with carcinogenesis The objective of this study was to perform an assessment of the presence of PAHs derived from the maize drying process using Cavaco burning as a fuel source. The experiment was conducted in the municipality of Cascavel-Paraná, in a storage unit located in Colônia Melissa, using a Kepler Weber column dryer model ADS 150, with a capacity of 150 t/h, with an IMTAB chip burner, with capacity of 8,000,000 kcal/h. To assess the presence of PAHs, corn samples were collected at the entry of the product into the storage unit (control) and samples were collected after the drying process with two passes in the dryer, for five days, every hour during eight hours a day, in the period of harvest/2020. All results obtained were below the detectable limit of 0.6 µg/kg. It is concluded with this study that the drying process of corn using chips in burners does not significantly produce PAHs, thus not harming the quality of the grain.