Ozone saturation and decomposition kinetics in porous medium containing different hybrids of maize

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate ozone saturation and decomposition kinetics in porous medium containing grains of different hybrids of maize. The following hybrids were used: common maize hybrid AG 1051, super sweet maize hybrids Tropical Plus, GSS 42072, GSS 41499 and GSS 41243. 1 kg grain samples with water contents of 13.0% (w.b.) were placed in glass containers with 3.25 L capacity. The grains were ozonized at the concentration of 1.28 mg L-1, at 25 ºC, with gas flow rate of 5.0 L min-1. Saturation time and concentration, half-life time and physical properties such as apparent specific weight, actual specific weight, porosity, sphericity and circularity of each maize hybrid were determined. The experiments were conducted in a completely randomized design with three replicates, using regression analysis of the data. Ozone saturation times remained between 6.6 and 163.9 min, with saturation concentration varying from 0.34 to 1.12 mg L-1. As for the ozone half-life time, the highest value was 10.5 min for the common maize hybrid AG 1051 and the lowest value was 0.14 min for the super sweet maize hybrid GSS 41499. It was concluded that ozone saturation and decomposition kinetics in maize depends on the hybrid contained in the porous medium. Ozone decomposition is faster in porous medium containing super sweet maize hybrids compared with the common maize hybrid.