The effect of grain mass variations on drying time by adding a pipe heat exchanger to a fluidized bed dryer

Abstract

Drying is one way of post-harvest handling to extend the shelf life, especially for agricultural crops. In general, post-harvest drying is only done naturally by using heat from solar energy or commonly called conventional drying. In this study, the grain was dried using a fluidized bed dryer. However, the fluidized bed dryer was modified by adding a pipe heat exchanger. The purpose of this study was to find the effect of grain mass and air intake temperatures on drying time. The Indonesian government has carried out SNI provisions for milling the maximum water content in the material which is 14%. In this study, the grain used was the newly harvested grain where the water content was about 20% with a tolerance of ± 1%. The mass variations in this study were 0.4 kg, 0.6 kg and 0.8 kg and the temperature variations applied were 55°C, 60°C, and 65° C. The results showed the highest heat loss occurs at the highest mass because the air velocity is not able to circulate properly.Drying is one way of post-harvest handling to extend the shelf life, especially for agricultural crops. In general, post-harvest drying is only done naturally by using heat from solar energy or commonly called conventional drying. In this study, the grain was dried using a fluidized bed dryer. However, the fluidized bed dryer was modified by adding a pipe heat exchanger. The purpose of this study was to find the effect of grain mass and air intake temperatures on drying time. The Indonesian government has carried out SNI provisions for milling the maximum water content in the material which is 14%. In this study, the grain used was the newly harvested grain where the water content was about 20% with a tolerance of ± 1%. The mass variations in this study were 0.4 kg, 0.6 kg and 0.8 kg and the temperature variations applied were 55°C, 60°C, and 65° C. The results showed the highest heat loss occurs at the highest mass because the air velocity is not able to circulate properly.