COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE STUDY OF OPEN SUN DRYING AND MECHANICAL DRYER IN

LUN MASLA MALAPATAN

I. INTRODUCTION

Drying is the most important activity in rice postharvest handling. Rice is usually harvested at
grain moisture content between 24% and 26%. Any delay in drying, incomplete drying, or uneven drying
of harvested rice will result in quality and quantity losses, including yellowing or discoloration, reduced
milling yields, loss of seed germination and vigor, and damage caused by insects that are more active at
high moisture content (IRRI 2009).

Sun drying is a traditional drying method for reducing the moisture content of paddy by spreading
the grains under the sun. The solar radiation heats up the grains as well as the surrounding air and thus
increases the rate of water evaporating from the grains.

It is the most common drying method in the entire Sarangani region because of its low cost
compared to mechanical drying. It requires little investment and is environmentally friendly since it uses
the sun as the heat source and therefore produces no CO 2.

However, sun drying tends to be labor-intensive and has limited capacity. Temperature control is
also difficult in this method and grains can easily be overheat causing cracked grains which leads to low
milling quality. It is also not possible to sun dry at night or during rain.

And with this, the DA Region XII grants the municipality of Malapatan with GT recirculating
mechanical dryer enligned with the DA XII 2019 Rice program. GT Mobile Fast Dryers can run on an
electric motor using a 3-phase line and generating set, a simple four-cylinder diesel engine, or the PTO
(power take-off) of a farm tractor. This makes the GT Mobile Fast Dryers very versatile, as they still can
operate in areas where there is no electrical power.

The objectives of this Drying Project were:

1. To survey and evaluate existing dryers in terms of operation, quality, drying cost

2. To study other types of dryers suitable for future application in Malapatan Sarangani Province.

3. To disseminate research results for checking up the technology.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this study, two ways of drying were being compared namely the traditional way sun drying and
using GT 545XL Recirculating Batch Grain Dryer. The experiments were performed in the municipality of
Malapatan Brgy Lun Masla last August 7,2019.

The drying process using the mechanical dryer onlu happened once which is during the launching
of the said dryer. The data that was gathered will be compared to the existing record of the DA Malapatan
of the sun drying method.

Since the increased agricultural production need immediate drying for preservation (Belessiotis
and Delyannis, 2011), Corn, one of the major products in Lun Masla, was studied as a food to be dried in
this study. Corn growers are usually confronted with difficulty in the safe storage of their grain crop
because of a high moisture content (22-30%) at the time of harvest. Thus, according to Coradi et al.
(2020) the drying must be carried out properly so as not to affect the properties of the grains and their
derivatives, mainly controlling the drying air temperature (Maldaner et al., 2021) and the grain mass
temperature (Nunes, et al., 2022).

The samples that were used in this experiment were taken from a local farmer in Lun Masla. The
total weight of the sample is 13,143 kg wet basis. The initial moisture content was determined in a digital
moisture meter and it was found to be 32%. According to PAES 202, corn should be dried 14% final
moisture content.

A. Details of the Mechanical Dryer

 In this study, GT 545XL recirculating batch grain dryer was used to dry the harvest from the local
farmer. This dryer consists of the following features,

Figure 1. GT 545XL Recirculating Batch Grain Dryer Specifications

1. Loading Hopper
2. One 12″ auger
3. Built-in grain sampler
4. Completely portable
5. Centrally located controls
6. Round bin design
7. Perforated (3/32″) inner chamber
8. Positive agitator arms
9. Built-in vaporizer
10. Efficient stainless steel
11. NEW In-Line Centrifugal fan
12. Service access door
13. & 14. Modular access panels
15. Space-age coating
16. NEW central lube location
17. Complete drying control
18. Safety controls

Table 1. Specifications of Mechanical Grain Dryer (manufacturer’s site)

GT 545XL Batch Grain Dryer Specifications

Capacity (Rice/Corn) 12.7 Tonne
Batch Type Mobile, Recirculating
Overall, Height 5.6 m
Transport Height 4.2 m
Bin Diameter 3.4 m
Electric Motor Required 25 Hp, 1750 rpm
Dust Collector Motor 3 Hp, 1750 rpm
PTO Speed 525 rpm
Grain Application Rice/Corn
Drying Time (Hrs.) 3-4 hours
Output/day 45 Tons/Days

B. Details of the Sun Drying

The traditional methods used by farmers in Malapatan for drying corn rely on natural
sunlight to reduce moisture content to a safe level for storage. With good ventilation through the
 store, the grain can be harvested just after it is ripe (around 30 percent MC for corn) but most
methods allow some of the drying to take place naturally while the crop is still standing in the
field.

C. Procedure

D. Data Collection
 III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results obtained from DA Malapatan about the previous drying using on GT 545XL
Recirculating dryer are discussed in this section. Changes of weight loss, moisture content,
drying rates and fuel consumption were presented.

A. Drying of Corn in GT 545XL Recirculating Dryer

The 545XL is the mid-sized model being offered to Philippine market, and addresses the

need for larger farming enclaves that grow corn or rice.

It has an 12.7-ton capacity and dry grains in 3-4 hours to a moisture content of 31% to 14%.

The 545XL has two tires, two jack stands and a ladder.

It has a transport height of 4.2 meters and bin diameter of 2.4 meters.

Standard in all GT Mobile Fast Dryers offered by ACETC are loading hopper, manual

unloading head, circulating auger, power take-off (PTO) tumbler shaft, dryer controls, grain

sampler, access door to plenum, and vaporizer.

Like the rest of the GT Mobile Fast Dryers offered in the Philippines, the 345XL can be

towed by a farm tractor that has a power ranging from 50 to 100 hp, making it easy to

move to another location.

This type of dryer entirely depends on solar energy for its drying operation. The heated air passes through
the trays until the entire mushroom is dry. High drying air temperatures up to 70 ◦C - 100 ◦C can be
observed in this type of dryers, and these values are high enough to damage enzymes in most products
(Weiss and Buchinger, 2004). In this experiment, the max. temperature inside the drying chamber
reached 47.2 ◦C while the ambient temperature was 35 ◦C at 16:00. Fig. 4 shows the drying parameters
of 0.5 cm (T1), 1 cm (T2), and half (T4) sliced mushroom experiments, respectively. This graph shows the
changes of weight of mushrooms, drying chamber temperature and the drying rate during the drying
activity. Drying rate of mushroom represents the mass of moisture evaporated from mushroom per hour.
The average drying rates (kg/h) were observed to be 0.27, 0.26 and 0.19, respectively. The highest drying
rates for all three samples were recorded at 15:00 when the min. relative humidity and the max.
temperature reached at the chamber, as 0.28, 0.33 and 0.20, respectively. By looking at Fig. 4, it can be
inferred that drying rate is directly proportional to temperature and inversely proportional to humidity. Fig.
5 shows the comparison of the parameters for pre-treated 1 cm thick (T2) and non-pretreated 1 cm thick
(T3) mushroom samples, respectively. According to Kumar et al. (2016), the quality of dried product
obtained by NCDs and the drying time can be improved by using pretreatment techniques. In the T3
experiment, samples were pretreated by soaking them in 1% citric acid solution for ten minutes prior to
drying process. While the average drying rates were observed as 0.26 for T2, and 0.28 for T3; the
pretreated T3 samples were completed the drying process between 16:00–17:00, and the non-pretreated
T2 samples were dried approximately one hour later. So, the process of pretreatment achieved 13.1%
saving in drying time against non-pretreated drying. In each drying experiments depicted in Figs. 4 and 5;
drying rates are observed to be quite low in the first hours. The reason is that the solar intensity on the
collector, and the temperature of the drying chamber are low in the mornings. According to these findings,
it can be assumed that drying rate increases with temperature raise or moisture decrease in drying air,
the max. drying rate occurred between 12:00–16:00 for all experiments.

IV. CONCLUSION
V. REFERENCES
 VI. APPENDICES

Table 1. Existing Corn Annual Production per barangay of Malapatan

Location Area Annual Production

Major Crop
(Barangay) Actual Hectarage % Utilization Volume Value Php
Corn Daan Suyan 557 2.18 2562.2
Kihan 654 2.55 3008.4
Kinam 716 2.8 3293.6
Libi 336 1.31 1545.6
Lun Masla 476 1.86 2189.6
Lun Padidu 629 2.46 2893.4
Patag 359 1.4 1651.4
Poblacion 656 2.56 3017.4
Sapu Masla 469 1.83 2157.4
Sapu Padidu 470 1.84 2162
Tuyan 454 1.77 2088.4
Upper Suyan 536 2.1 2465.6
Total   6312 24.66 29035  

Figure 1. Open Sun Drying in Lun Masla Malapatan

Figure 2. Current Location of GT 545XL Batch Grain Dryer

Figure 3. Existing Mechanical Grain Dryer in Lun Masla Malapatan

Figure 4. Conducted interview with the secretary of LUMAFA Association

Figure 5. Location of the Experiment.