Traditional oats mills used stones set at well-defined distances to split the hulls and enable them to be detached from the groats. Although this procedure is still used in some smaller mills, the larger mils that are needed to produce the quantities of oat products required today use impact hullers.
The impact dehuller feeds grain into a spinning rotor. The impact of the grain with a wall as they are expelled from the rotor releases the groats from the hulls. The hulls are then removed by aspiration. The compressed-air dehuller.
The groats is then subject to a polishing which removes the dust and hull which has not been properly dislodged.
The oat hull is mainly fiber; hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin. There are low levels of protein, fat, starch and water-soluble carbohydrates.
Hulls are by products of oat milling, and from this furfural is prepared which, with its derivatives, is used in making nylon, in oil refining and in some other industrial processes.
Cereal processing: Dehulling of oats
