Hydration is a crucial step during grain processing. It is performed prior to many other processes, such as germination, cooking, extraction, malting and fermentation. The number of publications on this topic studying the description of the mechanisms involved and recent technologies for processing enhancement has increased recently. However, due to the complexity of the hydration process, there are still many aspects that are little understood. For that reason, this review provides not only an overview of recent developments in this field, but also a critical discussion of publications from the last 2 decades, as well as suggestions for future innovative studies. This review discusses the importance of hydration in the grain industries, the pathway for water entry into the various grains, the mass transfer and fluid flow mechanisms in the process, the behavior of the hydration kinetics, the mathematical modelling, the technologies used to accelerate the process and other necessary requirements that must be performed to complement and complete our knowledge of this process.

中文翻译：

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谷物的水化：从现象描述到工艺改进的批判性回顾

水合是谷物加工过程中的关键步骤。它在许多其他过程之前执行，例如发芽，烹饪，提取，制麦芽和发酵。研究有关机制描述和处理增强的最新技术的有关该主题的出版物的数量最近有所增加。但是，由于水合过程的复杂性，仍然有许多方面尚不清楚。因此，本综述不仅概述了该领域的最新发展，而且还对过去20年中的出版物进行了严格的讨论，并提出了对未来创新研究的建议。这篇评论讨论了水合在谷物工业中的重要性，水进入各种谷物的途径，过程中的传质和流体流动机制，