Mobile continuous flow flash dryer
1992
Malicsi, L.C. (ed.) (Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, Los Banos, Laguna (Philippines))
The Mobile Flash Dryer (MFD) facilitates drying of palay at the farmers' field, thus, minimizing losses due to handling and transporting. It also minimizes grain quality deterioration during the wet season when sun drying cannot be depended on. The MFD is a vertical, columnar-type continuous flow grain dryer mounted in a trailer for easy transport. It operates using the "flash drying" technique (the use of relatively high temperature) to dry rapidly grains with 24-35% moisture content (MC). It is primarily designed as the first stage dryer to allow longer grain storability before finally drying it in the sun when possible (two-stage drying). However it can also dry the wet palay to desired moisture content even without sun drying. The MFD has the following advantages: 1) It can quickly dry very wet grains in 15-20 minutes in a safe 18% MC. Grains can then be stored without spoiling for a period of three weeks. Thus, MFD becomes handy especially during the wet season; 2) The dryer is simple to operate. Its materials are locally variable; 3) Designed to be mobile, the trailer-type grain dryer can be easily transported using jeepney/truck or animal. Its mobility allows drying at any accessible site; 4) Its mobility also will allow custom drying scheme just like threshing, thus augmenting returns-on-investment; 5) It has a heat recycling feature which uses hot unsaturated air from the drying section to be recycled. This feature saves energy consumption by 35%; and 6) Ongoing tests point to the potential of the MFD to dry corn grains. MFD can also help minimize the hazard of aflatoxin contamination when corn grains are dried well.
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