Equilibrium moisture content and sorption isosteric heats of five wheat varieties in China

The moisture sorption isotherm data of five Chinese wheat varieties were investigated via the gravimetric static method at five different temperatures (10, 20, 25, 30, and 35 °C) and relative humidity ranging from 11.3 to 96.0%. The sorption data of wheat decreased with an increase in temperature at a constant relative humidity (r.h.). The hysteresis effect was observed between adsorption and desorption isotherms. The width and span of the hysteresis loop decreased with increased temperature, but was not influenced by the hardness of wheat varieties. Six models, namely the Chen-Clayton (CCE), Modified BET (BET), Modified-Chung-Pfost (MCPE), Modified-Henderson (MHE), Modified-Oswin (MOE) and Strohman-Yoerger (SYE), were employed to describe the experimental data. The BET, MCPE and MOE models were selected to best describe the sorption isotherms of wheat in the ranges of 11.3–49.9, 11.3–96.0 and 11.3–96.0% r.h., respectively. The hygroscopic property difference between hard wheat (cv. ‘Longyuan’ and ‘Nanduan’) and soft wheat (cv. ‘Zhaozhuang’ and ‘Lumai’) was very small. The sorption isosteric heat of wheat decreased with an increase in moisture content until the dry bulb moisture content (m.c.) of 20% was reached, and then decreased smoothly with increasing moisture content. A big difference was found between adsorption and desorption isosteric heats of wheat below 20% m.c., but the sorption isosteric heat difference between hard and soft wheat isotherms was small.