DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A GREEN-HOUSE TYPE SOLAR DRYER FOR DRYING EAR AND SHELLED CORN | ||||
| Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Research | ||||
| Article 25, Volume 80, Issue 3, September 2002, Page 1277-1295 PDF (4.26 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejar.2002.312656 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
| OSAMA M. KAMEL1; MOHAMED M. EL-KHOLY2 | ||||
| 1Senior Researcher and Director of Rice Mechanization Centre (R.M.C), Meet EI-Dyba, Kafer EI-Sheikh, Egypt | ||||
| 2Agricultural Engineering Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| A green house-type solar dryer was developed at the experimental farm of Rice Mechanization Center (R. M. C.), Meet El-Dyba, Kafer El-Sheikh Governorate. The dryer was tested and evaluated for drying high moisture ear and shelled corn of variety (three way - cross 310) and compared with natural sun drying method. The results show that, the developed dryer was able to dry ear corn from an initial level of 29.85% to a final level of 14.26% in 84 hours as compared to 187 hours for natural sun drying method. The corresponding drying times for shelled corn from an initial grain moisture level of 19.87% to a final level of 14.13% were 18 and 34 hours respectively. Quality evaluation tests of the dried ear and shelled corn showed a lower percentage of kernels stress cracks for the solar dried kernels compared with natural sun drying of ear corn giving the lowest percentage of stress cracks kernels (SC) (9.10%).. While the natural sun drying produced the highest percentage of (SC) kernels (23.1 %). However the grain germination tests showed an average percentage of over 90% for both solar and natural sun drying methods of ear and shelled corn. Cost analysis of the solar dryer showed a total cost of 28.76 LE/ ton for drying ear corn from an initial grain moisture level of 29.85% to a final moisture level of 14.26% and 8.00 LE / ton for drying shelled corn from an initial level of 19.87% to a final level of 14.13%. For the two stage drying system reduction the estimated drying cost from initial moisture level of 29.85% to a final level of 19.87% for ear corn and from initial level of 19.87 to a final level of 14.13% for shelled corn was about 20.68 LE/ton. | ||||
|
Statistics Article View: 36 PDF Download: 123 |
||||
