The rapid growth of the world’s population has led to increased interest in legumes on the world grain market. Legumes are primarily a source of inexpensive protein as the basis for the nutrition of billions of people on the planet, as well as a valuable component in the diet of farm animals. At the same time, the effects of global climate change, advances in breeding and agricultural technology have made it possible to significantly expand the range of legumes cultivation and increase their productivity. The growing importance of legumes, the increased interest of farmers, processors and entrepreneurs in them makes it necessary to take a new look at the technology and techniques of legume grain processing. It should be noted that the grain of different legumes has different chemical composition, different morphological features and different physical and mechanical properties, which leads to significant differences in their processing technology.
Traditional technology of pea grain processing involves its cleaning from impurities, fractionation into two fractions, fractional peeling, sorting the resulting products, their checking, grinding and polishing to produce whole peas and split peas polished. The main disadvantages of this technology is the low yield of groats ( table 1.1), the lack of ability to produce only chopped peas, the complexity of technology and high energy intensity of processing. This technology and its results are dictated by the use of machines such as A1-ZSHN for pea shelling, which until recently was the only design for this operation. However, the development of our company peeling and grinding machine design “KASKAD” and a machine for splitting peas MKG opened the way to a more advanced, simple and much less energy-intensive processing technology of peas, implemented even within the multipurpose aggregate pea processing plant “OPTIMATIK-K”. This improved technology provides for production of whole and chopped peas as well as chopped peas only. The experience of a number of plants shows that the actual yield of whole and chopped peas produced by the improved technology is significantly higher than by the traditional technology (table 1.1), and the resulting groats are characterized by an acceptable commercial appearance (Fig. 1.2).
At the same time, the specific seedling content in pea groats is 90-94% of their weight and when compared with the obtained yield of groats, significant unused reserves are visible. This has led to further search for ways to improve the processing technology of this crop
Table 1.1. Pea grains output with different technologies
| Technology | Product name | Output, % |
| Traditional technology | Whole and split peas | 77 |
| Improved technology | Whole and split peas | 83-85 |
| Improved technology | Split peas | 80-82 |
| New technology | Split peas | 88-90 |
Today, OLIS company offers a new technology for processing peas, which provides almost complete use of all the potential of the grain into groats (Table 1.1)! A distinctive feature of this technology is the processing of pea grains without their fractionation, without the use of peelers of different types, and without use of hydro-thermal treatment processes in order to weaken the bonds between cotyledons and shells. All the grain arriving after purification is processed into groats without any residue, i.e. without any number of unprocessed “tails”. The resulting groats have an excellent marketable appearance (Fig. 1.3), although the processing technology also includes the possibility of separating the resulting groats by quality.
This crop is rapidly gaining more and more acreage in Europe and Asia. Significant amounts of this crop are already grown in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. However, the lack of a tradition of lentil grits consumption as well as a tradition of its production contributes to the export of this crop in an unprocessed form.
The lack of scientifically grounded domestic technology of lentils processing required the study of world experience with the grain of this culture. The analysis showed the shortcomings of existing technologies, which in turn required the development of modern methods of their implementation. As a result, today we offer a fairly simple and efficient technology for processing lentils into groats which allows for significant competitive advantages.
As a rule, lentil grain contains a large number of impurities, especially those which are difficult to separate. Therefore, when preparing the grain for processing, much attention is paid to its cleaning. Lentil grain (Fig. 2.1) is relatively fine and fragile, so in this regard, the correct selection of equipment, scheme and modes of peeling becomes especially important. The commercial appearance of lentil grits provides for an almost complete absence of any impurities, which is achieved by using optical sorters, as well as a smooth, shiny surface, which is ensured by special polishing methods (Fig. 2.2 and 2.3).
In any technology, the yield of finished products depends significantly on the quality of raw materials, but the average indicators of the proposed technology for the yield of products from grain grown in Ukraine, we give in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1. Output of products when processing lentils grain.
| Product name | Output,% |
| Whole groats | 60 |
| Groats divided into cotyledons | 18 |
| Flour forage (broken seeds) | 5 |
| Feed Hulling Bran | 6 |
| Husk | 11 |
If necessary, the proposed technology can contain the option of producing only groats divided into cotyledons. In this case, there is a decrease in the yield of groats, which is due to the increased formation of grits and bran (powder).
Chickpea cultivation in Europe and Asia is also growing rapidly. Chickpea grain is a good export position of domestic crop production. Properly grown and threshed chickpea grain is covered with a thin transparent shell and is used as such in the preparation of various dishes. However, domestic experience of growing this crop shows that during ripening and threshing of chickpea in conditions of high humidity its grains are highly susceptible to fungal diseases. Affected grain loses quality and marketable appearance making it unsuitable for further use. In some cases such grain (Fig. 3.1) can be saved by operation of its peeling, which involves careful removal of the top spoiled covers. As a result of the proposed technology when separating 20% of the grain mass in the form of husks and flours, the yield of whole chickpea grain is about 20% and chickpea grain divided into cotyledons is about 60% (Table 3.1, Fig. 3.1 – 3.5).
Table 3.1. Output of processed chickpea
| Product name | Output, % |
| Whole chickpea | 20 |
| Chickpea divided into cotyledons | 60 |
| Flour forage (broken seeds) | 13 |
| Husk | 7 |
Bean grains (Fig 4.1) are common in Arab countries. For example, almost every Egyptian begin the day with a breakfast bean sandwich. Despite the favorable climate, domestic crop production is only taking its first steps in growing this crop. All grown grain here is exported in its natural form. But in processed form it is more expensive!
Although beans can be eaten with their shells, the culture of the Arab countries, for example, requires the use of husked and sorted beans before they are husked.
Depending on the sort and region of cultivation, beans differ in size, as well as shape and surface roughness (Fig 4.1), which determines the difference in processing modes. On the basis of studying the world experience of beans processing we developed and tested the competitive technology, realized on the base of modern equipment and methods of processing. Industrial testing of the proposed technology was carried out on batches of beans grown in Ukraine. Average indicators of the yield of processed products are shown in Table 4.1, and their appearance is shown in Fig. 4.2 – 4.5.
Table 4.1. Output of processed beans
| Product name | Output, % |
| Coarse peeled beans | 67-70 |
| Small peeled beans | 7-10 |
| Powder | 8-10 |
| Husk | 14-17 |
This technology is industrial, although it is notable for its simplicity, as well as the possibility of implementation at any scale of production.
Familiar to us beans in Slavic cuisine are used in the usual form (Fig. 5.1). However, there are regions, such as the Arab world, where some dishes with beans require separating their upper shell. Today, beans are also a good export position for domestic farmers, and supplying them in processed form is an additional profit. Given the growing interest in this crop, the company “OLIS” has developed a technology for processing beans of different varieties into husked beans. The average yields of processed products obtained in the testing of this technology are shown in Table 5.1, their appearance is shown in Fig. 5.2 and 5.3.
This technology is also realizable at any scale of production.
Table 5.1. Output of processed kidney beans
| Product name | Output, % |
| Peeled kidney beans | 77-82 |
| Bran (powder) | 18-23 |
