The Dehydrative Capacity of Solar Rice Dryer for Rural Areas
Keywords:
Air heater, dehydrative capacity, dryer, rice, solar energyAbstract
A detailed method for determining the dehydrative capacity of solar dryer is presented in this paper. A solar drying system working on the principles of natural heat flow was developed using mainly inexpensive locally available materials to make it relatively affordable. The dryer was evaluated by the dehydrating temperature and relative humidity attained, rate of moisture removal from the food item and its overall dehydrative capacity. The results obtained during the period of test revealed that the dehydrating temperature inside the drying chamber was higher than the ambient temperature by an average of 64% during most hours of the daylight. The dryer was able to reduce the moisture content of the wet rice from 33.0% (dry basis) to 1.4% (dry basis) in 13 hours of effective dehydration time. The system overall dehydrative capacity and drying efficiency during the test period were 0.5 kg/kg.h of atmospheric air and 52.2%, respectively.
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Ahmad, A., Saini, J.S. and Varma, H.K., 1996. Thermohydraulic performance of packed-bed solar air heaters. Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 205-214.
Arinze, E.A., 1985. Design and performance evaluation of a commercial size natural convection solar crop dryer. Nigeria Journal of Solar Energy, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 106-115.
Awachie, I.R.N., 1985. Design, construction and evaluation of a solar drier in the Nsukka environment. In: O. Awe (editor). Proceedings of the Workshop on the Physics and Technology of Solar Energy Conversion, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, pp. 145-155.
Bala, B.K. and Woods, J.L., 1994. Simulation of the indirect natural convection solar drying of rough rice. Solar Energy, Vol. 53, No. 3, pp. 259-266.
Bolaji, B.O., 2003. The role of solar energy in preservation of agricultural products in Nigeria. In: V. Adekunle, E. Okoko and S. Adeduntan (editors). Proceedings of 11th Annual Conference of Environment and Behaviour Association of Nigeria (EBAN), pp. 187-193.
Bolaji, B.O., 2005. Performance evaluation of simple solar dryer for food preservation. Book of Proceedings of 6th Annual Engineering Conference of School of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria, pp. 8-13.
Chandra, M. and Oguntuase, O., 1986. A natural convention solar water heater for application in Nigeria buildings. Nigeria Journal of Solar Energy, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 151-157.
Diamante, L.M. and Munro, P.A., 1993. Mathematical modeling of the thin layer solar drying of sweet potato slices. Solar Energy, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 271-276.
Duffie, J.A. and Beckman, W.A., (1991). Solar engineering of thermal processes, 2nd Edition, John Wiley and Sons New York.
Eastop, T.D. and McConkey, A., 1996. Applied thermodynamics for engineering technology, Longman Publishers, Singapore.
Fath, H.E.S., 1995. Thermal performance of simple design solar air heater with built-in thermal energy storage system. Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 36, No. 10, pp. 989-997.
Fournier, M. and Guinebault, A., 1995. The shell dryer-modelling and experimentation. Renewable Energy, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 459-463.
Howe E.D., 1980. Principles of drying and evaporating. Sun World, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 182-185.
Itodo I.N., Obetta S.E. and Satimehin A.A., 2002. Evaluation of a solar crop dryer for rural applications in Nigeria. Botswana Journal of Technology, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 58-62.
Jayaraman, K.S., DasGupta, D.K. and Babu, R.N., 1992. Solar drying of vegetables, In Drying of Solids, Mujumdar, A.S. (Editor). Oxford 1BH, New Delhi, pp. 405-432.
Madhlopa, A., Jones, S.A. and Kalenga, J.D., 2002. A solar air heater with composite absorber systems for food dehydration. Renewable Energy, Vol. 27, pp. 27-37.
Njomo, D., 1995. Techno-economic analysis of a plastic cover solar air heater. Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 36, No. 10, pp. 1023-1029.
Ozbey, M. and Soylemez, M.S., 2005. Effect of swirling flow on fluidized bed drying of wheat grains, Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 46, pp. 1495-1512.
Sacilik, K., Keskin, R. and Elicin, A., 2006. Mathematical modelling and experimental analysis of solar tunnel drying of thin layer organic tomato. Journal of Food Engineering, Vol. 73, pp. 231-238.
Tris, C., Ozbalta, N., Tiris, M. and Dincer, I., 1995. Thermal performance of a new solar air heater. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 411-423.
Yadav, V. and Moon, C.G., 2008. Modelling and experimentation for the fabric-drying process in domestic dryers. Applied Energy, Vol. 85, pp. 404-419.
Youcef-Ali, S., Messaoudi, H., Desmons, J.Y., Abene, A. and Le-Ray, M., 2001. Determination of the average coefficient of internal moisture transfer during the drying of a thin bed of potato slices. Journal of Food Engineering, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 95-101.
Zomorodian, A., Zare, D. and Ghasemkhani, H., 2007. Optimization and evaluation of a semi-continuous solar dryer for cereals (Rice, etc). Desalination, Vol. 209, pp. 129-135.
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Published
2010-05-01
How to Cite
Bolaji, B. (2010). The Dehydrative Capacity of Solar Rice Dryer for Rural Areas. Ife Journal of Technology, 19(2), 42–47. Retrieved from http://ijt.oauife.edu.ng/index.php/ijt/article/view/65
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