UTILIZING EXHAUST GASES OF DIESEL ENGINES IN DRYING GRAIN RICE

Abstract

In Egypt, rice crop occupies the first rank in area cultivated as the main food.Percentage of moisture in grain is up to 24% with mechanical harvesting of rice crop. For safe storage of rice seeds, it is required to reduce the humidity to 14%. Due to weather changes it is difficult to dry by the sun. Therefore, the main objective of this study is the use of thermal energy lost with the exhaust gases of diesel engines in drying rice seed. The suggested drying unit is simple made from local raw materials, comprising: a fan to generate air stream carry the heat, heat exchanger for the exhaust gases installed behind the fan, a drying container. Drying tests were conducted using the Sakha 101, whereas the average weight of each sample in drying process was 25 kg, the average humidity was 20.4%, the average temperature of air was 24.6 oC and the average relative humidity of the air was 65.7%. The experiments have shown the following results: The highest temperature of input drying air was 42.2 oC, energy received by drying air was 9.62 MJ/h and capacity of drying unit was 0.074 ton/h achieved with drying air flow rate o7.65 m3/min.