Yılmaz, Halil İbrahimSöylemez, Mehmet Sait2025-01-062025-01-0620201300-36152667-7725https://search.trdizin.gov.tr/tr/yayin/detay/365255https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14669/1141The main contribution of this study is to present a novel thermal model for analyzingthe wheat cookingprocessand to propose a design procedure for an energy-efficient cooking pot. A small-scale cooking potwas designed and an experimental setup was installed to verify the model under various operating conditions. The developed model was solved using the Engineering Equation Solversoftware. Results were compared with those of the experiments and good agreement was obtained. Additionally, a computational fluid dynamics model was developed to verify the thermal model and have a useful design toolfor large-scale cooking pots. It was found that the energy efficiency of the cookingprocesscan be enhanced by initiating nucleate boiling (at ~5 °C minimum temperature difference between the heating element surface and saturation) which will supplythe minimum heat flux on the helicoidal heat exchanger of the cooking pot. Lessening the energy demandbut preserving the final product quality has decreased the 5-day biological oxygen demand of wastewater at least 50%. It is proposed that the wheat to water ratio can be reduced to 1.0?1.2 once the energyoptimization and water recovery practices are satisfied. The estimated average specific energy consumption rate lies between 400?475 ±5% W/kg (thermal power supplied for one kilogram of wheat) which can be reduced ~25% further by reducing the wheat to water ratio to 1.0. The results reported in the present study are expected to guide thermal and food engineers forthe design applications of industrial cooking pots, energy optimization with less harmful wastewater and process control strategies for cooking of wheateninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessArticle129111336525540