Rapid Drying of High-Moisture Paddy Using a Pneumatic Dryer with Corrugated-Surface Drying Column

Department of Materials Handling and Logistics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, 1518 Pracharat 1 Rd., Wongsawang, Bangsue, Bangkok, 10800, Thailand

^* Corresponding author: aswin.y@eng.kmutnb.ac.th

Abstract

Combination of corrugated-surface drying column and multipass drying concept (first-pass and second-pass drying) was made to increase the performance of a pneumatic dryer for high-moisture paddy. In this study, different characteristics of the drying column, which could be characterized by the ratio between the corrugated-surface length (C) and the total length (L) of the drying column (or C/L), were proposed. The influences of drying temperature (120^oC, 150^oC, and 180^oC) and value of C/L (0, 0.5 and 1.0) on the dryer performance and energy utilization of the drying process were disscussed. The drying column with a higher value of C/L had higher potential for increasing dryer performance. For the first-pass drying, the drying system using the drying column with corrugated surface could reduce the energy consumption by 14% to 44% compared with the drying system using the drying column without corrugated surface. For the second-pass drying, the drying system using the drying column with corrugated surface consumed more energy, however. The moisture reduction of paddy could also be significantly increased after the second-pass drying.