TITLE:
Design parameters for a small-scale batch in-bin maize dryer
AUTHORS:
Fashina Adepoju Bola., Akande Fatai Bukola., Ibrahim Saula Olanrewaju, Sanusi Bashir Adisa
KEYWORDS:
Design and Development; In-bin Maize dryer; Fresh Maize Grain; Moisture Content; Heat Transfer; Drying Rate
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.4 No.5B,
July
16,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Early season maize is
harvested with high moisture content that makes it impossible to store. The
sale of early season maize in green form is uneconomical to the farmer.
Experience had shown that farmers could hardly make the cost of production from
their sales. Also, grain losses are high when maize is harvested green. To
minimize grain losses and thereby increase value and the profit margin of the
farmer, a grain dryer is necessary for wet grains. Therefore, this paper
presents the design and development of a batch in-bin maize grain dryer. Some
properties of maize such as moisture content and bulk density were determined
to get information required for design of the dryer. The dimension of drying
chamber, amount of moisture to be removed in a batch, quantity of air required
to effect drying, volume of air required to effect drying, blower capacity,
quantity of heat required to effect drying and actual heat used to effect drying were all designed for. A maize dryer was developed
with a batch size of100 kg of threshed wet maize. The dryer can be used in laboratory for
experimental purpose as well as on the farm for commercial purposes. The dryer
can be used to measure drying rates of maize at different initial moisture
contents, drying air temperatures, drying air velocities and grain beds. The
effects of different drying temperature, air velocity, loading and agitating
speed on the quality of dried maize can be investigated with the dryer.