Retted flax stems contained high amounts of water from the pre-soaking and retting processes. Electro-osmotic dewatering was investigated as a pre-drying process for high-moisture flax stems using a bench electro-osmotic roller press. The various parameters affecting electroosmotic dewatering were cylinder pressure (1000 kPa-3000 kPa), applied voltage (12 V-36 V) and pre-soaking time of the flax stem (12 h-36 h). An experiment was designed using central composite design. From the experiments, a maximum of 38.34% of the total water contained in the stem was removed using 12 h soaking; 1000 kPa cylinder pressure and 36 V applied voltage during the electro-osmotic treatment. For a given soaking time, at 36 V with 3000 kPa cylinder pressure the maximum water removal occurred. The electro-osmotic permeability of the stems at various conditions was studied. In all the treatments, electro-osmotic permeability ranged between 3.32 x 10(-5) m(2) V-1 s(-1) and 1.22 x 10(-4) m(2) V-1 s(-1). Electro-osmotic permeability was found to increase with increasing water removal and decreased with increasing applied voltage. (C) 2015 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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