Open AccessDesign and Manufacture of a Dryer for Corn Grains, Ears and Cobs
Author(s) -
Humberto Rodríguez-Fuentes,
Juan Arredondo-Valdez,
Wilgince Apollon,
Urbano Luna-Maldonado,
Héctor Flores-Breceda,
Uziel Francisco Grajeda-González,
Alejandro Isabel Luna-Maldonado
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
türk tarım - gıda bilim ve teknoloji dergisi
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2148-127X
DOI - 10.24925/turjaf.v10i2.142-146.4448
Subject(s) - water content , airflow , moisture , kerosene , grain drying , environmental science , zoology , mathematics , pulp and paper industry , materials science , composite material , chemistry , engineering , mechanical engineering , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , biology
A corn dryer prototype was manufactured for Mexican small-scale farmers in order to avoid them paying fines for corn with a high-moisture content when selling their corn on to stores. The dryer comprised two large boxes perforated by round holes and containing stainless steel trays subjected to a hot air temperature of 45°C within the batch. The accumulated grain in both boxes was 200 mm and the airflow rate were 0.56 m3 s-1. The corn ears layer was of 80 mm of depth in each of the boxes. The airflow rate was 0.34 m3 s-1. Within eight hours, we sampled corn grain in nine points of each box and found that the mean corn grain moisture content was reduced from 30.36% to 10.47% for box 1 whereas for box 2 it was reduced until 14.72%. The fuel consumption for drying was 0.55 kg h-1 of kerosene. In Box1, the exponential regression model for corn grain moisture content had an R² of 0.9143 whereas Box 2 exponential regression model had an R² was of 0.6642. In Box 1, the exponential regression model for corn ear moisture content had an R² of 0.9616 whereas Box 2 had an R² was of 0.9400. Both models for corn cob moisture content had an R² of 0.9639. Two-layer corn dryers can be used to harness gas or fuel energy to speed up drying for storage.