A new first principle model with lumped parameters was developed for the hydration of soya beans. A transient mass balance was applied to the soya beans taking into consideration two basic hypotheses:1º) variation of the volume directly proportional to the variation of the mass of the grain during the process, 2º) Exponential variation of the apparent coefficient of mass transfer in function of water concentration in the soy. This model has got just two parameters, which were evaluated from adjustment of model to the measures of grain moisture along the time, at several temperatures. The results indicate that the proposed model was able to represent the hydration process, while the mass transfer coefficient depends on the temperature and it presents significant variations along the hydration.
soy; modelling; hydration
