Drying Technology

An International Journal

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Performance evaluation of small scale energy

efficient mixed flow dryer for drying of high
moisture paddy

Md. Hasan Tarek Mondal, Kazi Sayed Pasha Shiplu, Krishna Pada Sen,
Joysree Roy & Md. Sazzat Hossain Sarker

To cite this article: Md. Hasan Tarek Mondal, Kazi Sayed Pasha Shiplu, Krishna Pada Sen,
Joysree Roy & Md. Sazzat Hossain Sarker (2019): Performance evaluation of small scale
energy efficient mixed flow dryer for drying of high moisture paddy, Drying Technology, DOI:
10.1080/07373937.2018.1518914

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07373937.2018.1518914

Published online: 02 Jan 2019.

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DRYING TECHNOLOGY
https://doi.org/10.1080/07373937.2018.1518914

Performance evaluation of small scale energy efficient mixed flow dryer for
drying of high moisture paddy
Md. Hasan Tarek Mondal, Kazi Sayed Pasha Shiplu, Krishna Pada Sen, Joysree Roy, and
Md. Sazzat Hossain Sarker
Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University,
Dinajpur, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Suitable drying technique and energy efficient dryer are important concerns for drying of Received 13 April 2018
high moisture paddy. In this study, a small scale mixed flow dryer (MFD), with presenting Revised 31 July 2018
systematic design approach, was developed and tested for paddy drying. Performance Accepted 28 August 2018
evaluation of the developed dryer in terms of specific energy consumption, instantaneous
KEYWORDS
drying and energy efficiencies, and quality of the milled rice were investigated. A compara- Paddy drying; mixed flow
tive performance analysis between the developed MFD and industrial Louisiana State dryer; performance
University (LSU) dryer, which is widely used for paddy drying in Bangladesh, was also evaluation; specific energy
studied. In addition, drying kinetics for high moisture paddy was evaluated thorough analyz- consumption; drying and
ing outlet air relative humidity. Energy analysis revealed that specific electrical (in terms of energy efficiency; head
primary energy) and thermal energy consumption were 0.97 and 3.17 MJ kg 1 water rice yield
removed, respectively in reducing paddy moisture content (mc) from initial 25 to 12%, the
final mc wet basis. Calculation indicated that 33.1% specific electrical and 21% specific ther-
mal energy consumption can be saved by MFD in contrast to the industrial LSU dryer. The
energy and drying efficiency values were found to be varied from 0.85 to 0.90 and from
0.10 to 0.17, respectively. Statistical analysis revealed that paddy samples dried by the MFD
yielded 16.01% higher head rice yield than sun drying method. The energy analysis tactics
presented in this paper can readily be applied in performance evaluation for heated air
drying of different products.

Introduction Paddy drying is one of the most energy intensive

Paddy is one of the most important food crops in
the world which is consumed as staple food in
Bangladesh as well as many countries in Asia.
Freshly harvested paddy has high level of post-har-
vest moisture as much as 20–25%[1,2] (it is noted that
the moisture content is expressed on the percentage
wet basis throughout this paper except specified
otherwise). These freshly harvested grain with high
moisture content needs to be dried down to 12–14%
in order to avoid quality deterioration by micro-
organism, insect infestation and respiration.[3,4]
Moreover, deterioration and respiration rate of paddy
get faster immediately after harvest because of high
humid condition and irregular sunshine of the
atmospheric air.[5] Therefore, proper drying tech-
nique must be applied to prevent the deterioration of
paddy and biological changes.[6]
unit operations.[7] Also, quality of the milled rice such
as head rice yield and visual color is significantly influ-
enced by the drying methods.[8] High energy consump-
tion in paddy drying is an important concern in all
paddy-producing countries. It is also easily perceived
from the recent studies that uniform drying of grain in
achieving high quality products by using minimum
energy is an paramount demand for grain processing
industry.[9] Only in paddy drying process, energy cost
is about two-third that of whole processing cost of
paddy after harvesting.[10] Recent studies indicate that
dryer industrialists are of much interested on energy
efficiency, as it is a significant indicator of market price
with respect to drying cost. Therefore, it is important
to study on detail energy consumption configuration
and how competently energy is being used in drying
process in different dryers.

CONTACT Md. Sazzat Hossain Sarker mshsarker_hstu@yahoo.com Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Hajee Mohammad Danesh
Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/ldrt.
ß 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
2 MONDAL ET AL.
Energy analysis is an important element for any
innovation of drying operation. Updated studies indi-
cate that huge amount of energy is wasted in grain
drying operation. Therefore, energy conservation
schemes are of well interest nationwide. Thus, it is
important to examine different methodologies for dif-
ferent dryers to improve the energy efficiency in
reducing energy consumption for unit moisture
removal from the paddy grains. Performance evalu-
ation of an impinging stream dryer for partial drying
of paddy in first stage was investigated by Nimmol
and Devahastin.[11] It was reported that specific
energy consumption for paddy drying was 5.1 MJ
kg 1 water evaporated while experiments were con-
ducted at 110  C. Soponronnarit et al.[12] quoted that
the specific primary energy consumption was 6.15 MJ
kg 1 water evaporated to reduce moisture content
from 28 to 23% (db) with a feed rate of 4.82 ton h 1
in a vibro fluidized bed dryer. Sarker et al.[13] reported
that the specific thermal energy consumption in terms
of primary energy varied from 5.07 to 5.55 MJ kg 1
water evaporated in industrial fluidized bed dryer for
reducing paddy moisture content from 30-35% to
24.8-26.7% (db). Jittanit et al.[14] noted from
Soponronnarit and Chinsakoltanakorn[15] that specific
energy consumption was 2.33 MJ kg 1 water evapo-
rated in store dryer to dry the paddy grain from 18.78
to 14.2% moisture content while experiment was car-
ried out by ambient air drying (relative humidity
<75%) with fan on considering grain bed
depth 1.6 m.
Although, there have already been works on per-
formance evaluation in terms of energy consumption
with different dryers merely for fractional drying, i.e.
either drying of paddy from high initial moisture to
intermediate moisture or from intermediate to low
moisture level. However, facts and figures on detail
specific energy consumption for complete drying of
paddy are scarcely reported. One shortcoming corres-
pondingly appeared from the updated studies that
comprehensive works on energy efficiency, which is a
key index to evaluate drying performance of any
dryer, are very limited. It is also evident that informa-
tion on the performance evaluation of mixed flow
dryer (MFD), when being applied to freshly harvested
paddy, is still not available. Therefore, the objective of
this study was to develop a small scale MFD employ-
ing a comprehensive and systematic approach for dry-
ing of high moisture paddy. Further, energy analysis
approaches were presented for evaluation of dryer
performance evaluating specific electrical and thermal
energy consumption and thermal performance in
terms of energy as well drying efficiency for complete
drying of freshly harvested paddy.
Materials and methods
Design consideration
Mode of drying operation in the proposed MFD was
considered as batch type (maximum drying capacity
was 30 kg in a batch). However, drying process in the
dryer was considered as continuous at the rate of
2.0 kg min 1. Well mixing of grain with heated air
stream occurred during multiple pass thus parallel
flow, counter flow, and cross flow of grain and air
were also considered.[16] Holding capacity (30 kg) of
the dryer was determined based on the bulk density
of the paddy. The quantity of air required for the dry-
ing of paddy was calculated from the basic energy bal-
ance equation. To simplify the design, the following
assumptions were also made:
1) Cross-sectional area of the drying chamber is
0.25  0.25 m for making the dryer compact.
2) Moisture movement and heat transfer are one
dimensional
3) No chemical reaction takes place during dry-
ing process
4) Uniform air distribution throughout the dryer.
Design calculation
Estimation of total amount of moisture to
be removed
Total amount of moisture removed from the paddy
was calculated according to the following equation.[17]
Mw ¼ Wd ðXi Xo Þ (1)
Where, Mw and Wd are the amount of moisture
removed (kg) and weight of dried product (kg),
respectively; Xi and Xo are the initial and final mois-
ture contents (kg/kg on dry basis) of paddy,
respectively.
Determination of bulk density of paddy
Bulk density of paddy was determined following the
approach presented by Sarker et al.[18]
Weight of paddy
Bulk density; qb ¼ (2)
Cylinder volume
Here, qb is the bulk density of paddy (kg m 3).

Calculation of air flow rate
Design and calculation of air flow rate in grain drying
technology is much critical as it governs the reduction
of moisture in drying process. Theoretical air flow rate
was calculated from the energy balance equation by bal-
ancing the amount heat supplied for drying process
with the heat required for the drying process for reduc-
ing paddy moisture content from 25 to 12% at 45  C
with considering 10% heat loss[19] as expressed by
Equation (3).
Total heat supplied ¼ 1:1  Net thermal energy
requirementðHnet Þ
Qa  Ca  ðT1 T0 Þ  t ¼ 1:1  Hnet
1:1  Hnet
Qa ¼ (3)
Ca  ðT1 T0 Þ
1 thickness; the values a and b are constant for rough
Where, Qa is the air mass flow rate (2.50 kg min );
Ca is the specific heat of drying air (kJ kg 1 C 1); t is
the drying time (min); T1 and T0 are the corresponding
drying and ambient temperature ( C), respectively; Hnet
is the net thermal energy required for drying (kJ) and it
is an additive function of latent heat of evaporation of
moisture as well as sensible heat of dry solid and mois-
ture within the grain kernel.
Actual air flow rate was calculated using continuity
equation (Equation (4)). The cross section area at the
point of velocity measurement was calculated previously.
Q¼Av (4)
Where Q is the actual air flow rate (m3 s 1), A is
the cross sectional area (m2) and v is the drying air
velocity (ms 1). Cross sectional area and drying air
velocity were 0.008 m2 and 5.0 ms 1, respectively. The
corresponding calculated air flow rate was 0.04 m3s 1.
Air flow rate (m3 s 1) was then converted to air mass
flow rate (2.73 kg min 1) to use the parameter in
energy balance Equation (3).
Determining heater power
Required power of electric heater was calculated by
using the formula which is temperature dependent.
Pheater ¼ 1:21  Q  ðT1 T0 Þ (5)
Where, Pheater is the heater power (kW), Q ¼ air
flow rate (m3 s 1).
Holding capacity of the drying chamber
Total holding capacity of the drying chamber consid-
ering the amount of expected paddy to be dried in a
batch was calculated according to Equation (6).
DRYING TECHNOLOGY 3
WG
Volume; v ¼ (6)
qb
Here, v is the holding capacity of the drying cham-
ber (m3) and WG is the weight of paddy grain (kg).
Design of blower power
Pressure drop due to the resistance of flow of paddy
grains was calculated by following equation.[20] Then
it was converted into height of air column in meter
(m). Finally, the blower motor power was calculated
according to Equation (8).
a  wQ2
DP ¼ (7)
lnð1 þ b  QÞ
Where, DP is the pressure drop (Pa); w the bed
paddy grain and value obtained from Shedd curve.[20]
DP in terms of air column ðmÞ  Qa
Pblower ¼
4500  g
(8)
Where, Pblower and g are the power (hp) and effi-
ciency of the blower motor, respectively.
Fabrication of the mixed flow dryer
Dryer fabrication works were accomplished in a local
workshop. A stand frame (0.25  0.25 m) of iron angle
bar was built to support the drying chamber rigidly.
Height of the drying chamber was 1.0 m. Unfavorable
design, fabrication and row to row spacing between
air ducts causes uneven drying of grain in MFD.[21]
Therefore, to diminish the moisture uniformly from
the paddy kernel, the drying chamber was designed
and scaled accurately with eight rows of inverted V-
shaped air duct of which four rows are used for the
inlet of hot air and another four rows are used for the
outlet of the exhaust air. Air ducts in smaller size and
spacing between them produces homogenous air flow
by providing low density air stream.[22] Dimension of
the air duct was 4  6 cm and the air inlet rows and
outlet rows were arranged alternatively maintaining a
distance of 4 cm from one row to another row. Angle
within the inverted V shaped air ducts is 60 which is
greater than the angle of repose of most bulk material,
thereby, avoiding bridge formation of paddy as well as
enabling the drying chamber for more uniform distri-
bution of heated air. Discharge hopper, at the bottom
of the drying chamber was connected at 50 for easy
and uniform discharge of the paddy. The dryer was
designed with aiding two discharge rotors for the
4 MONDAL ET AL.
continuous recirculation of paddy. Mild steel (MS)
rod of 0.015 m diameter with 0.25 m length was used
to turn the roller shafts. Six flat bars of
0.019  0.0025 m and 0.25 m in length were welded
with the MS rod at 60 angle to each other for fabri-
cating discharge rotor. Air inlet hopper was connected
with the drying chamber at 45 angle. Heating unit
was set before the blower fan at right angle for using
the heated air resourcefully. Major component of the
developed dryer are presented in Figure 1.
Experimental set-up
Freshly harvested paddy samples (BRRI Dhan 28)
were collected from a local farmer of Dinajpur dis-
trict. The samples were then cleaned manually and
loaded in the drying chamber. Digital grain moisture
meter (GMK-303 RS, Korea, accuracy ±0.5%) was
used to record percentage of moisture content while
moisture value dropped below 17%. This is due to the
limitation of the digital grain moisture meter as it
does not usually give well reading below 7% and
above 17% moisture content.[23] Therefore, at initial
stage of drying, moisture content of the samples was
calculated based on weight difference by oven drying
method, i.e. keeping the sample in oven for 24 h at
105  C. Initial moisture content of the test paddy for
the current study was 25.0 ± 0.04%.
Inlet drying air temperature was generated by con-
trolling one electric heater rated at 1.5 kW. Electric
heater was switched on after 5.0 minutes of switching
on blower motor. Drying air temperature and velocity
were then fixed at 45  C and 5.0 ms 1, respectively.
Inlet air temperature was recorded by K type therm-
ometer (TM-9126, Lutron, Taiwan) with the measure-
ment accuracy of ±0.002  C. The inlet air velocity at
different positions of the air inlet duct was measured
with a thermal anemometer (TA430, UK) with an
accuracy of ±0.015 ms 1. Outlet air humidity was
recorded by probe-type hygrometer (RT811CE, Hong
Kong) with an accuracy of ±0.05. Control of discharge
rotor speed is one of the most important variable
which influences the grain moisture content at the
dryer outlet.[24] Speed of the discharge rotor was fixed
at 2.0 rpm that allowed paddy discharge at the rate of
0.5 kg in each revolution. As the dryer was designed
with two discharge rotor, therefore, in one revolution
of the rotors, total 1.0 kg of paddy was discharged.
Dried paddy was then tempered for 45 min at grain
temperature when moisture content dropped around
18%. Tempering of the grain was done in an enclosed
plastic jar wherein probability of loss of heat energy
Figure 1. Pictorial view of the developed mixed flow dryer.
from the grain was negligible. It is noted that mois-
ture content before and after tempering was 17.9 ± 0.1
and 17.6 ± 0.1%, respectively, while corresponding
grain temperature was 35  C and 30.7  C, respectively.
Consequently, around 0.3% moisture was found to be
varied during tempering. The samples were then dried
until final moisture content reduced to 12.0%. Finally,
the dried products were kept in plastic sacks and
stored at environmental condition for milling qual-
ity evaluation.
Performance evaluation of the MFD
Performance evaluation of a dryer is an important fac-
tor for the assessment and selection of a suitable
dryer. Even though there are several indices of
expressing the efficiency of a dryer, of which energy
efficiency, thermal efficiency, volumetric evaporation
rate, drying rate, specific energy consumption, unit
steam consumption, and milling quality are the most
useful.[25] Specific energy consumption, thermal per-
formance in terms of drying and energy efficiency
and quality of milled rice were evaluated to assess per-
formance of the MFD.
Analysis of specific energy consumption
Total energy consumed by the MFD is divided into
thermal energy for sensible heating of drying air and
electricity for driving the blower fan. The primary
electrical and thermal energy consumptions were cal-
culated by using the Equations (9) and (11) proposed
by Jittanit et al.[14] and Sarker et al.[26] after little
modification taking into account of blower efficiency.
Specific electrical energy consumption (SPEEC) and

thermal energy consumption (SPTEC) were calculated
in mega joule (MJ) per kg water evaporated according
to Equations (12) and (13), respectively. Finally, the
total specific energy consumption was calculated
according to Equation (14).
2:6Pblower  t
Eelectrical ¼ (9)
g 1
Pblower ¼ VIcosh (10)
Eheat ¼ Qa Ca ðT1 T0 Þ  t (11)
Eelectrical
SPEEC ¼ (12)
Mw
Eheat
SPTEC ¼ (13)
Mw
Etotal ¼ SPEEC þ SPTEC (14)
Where Eelectrical is the electrical energy consumption
by the blower fan of the dryer (kJ), Pblower is the
power of the blower motor (kW) that was calculated
using Equation (10), t is the total drying time (h), g is
the blower motor efficiency (0.85), V is the average
line voltage (180 volt), I is the average line current
(0.45 A), Cosh is the power factor (0.80). Rated power
of blower motor and average drying time were
0.373 kW and 5.0 hours, respectively. Eheat is the ther-
mal energy consumption for heating the drying air,
Qa is the air mass flow rate (kg s 1). The calculated
average Eelectrical and Eheat values are 3.56 MJ and
11.64 MJ, respectively.
Analysis of energy and drying efficiency
Thermal performance in terms of energy efficiency
and drying efficiency were evaluated for the current
study. Energy efficiency is a lumped parameter and is
useful when comparing the performance of different
dryers. The instantaneous energy efficiency was calcu-
lated according to Equation (15).[27,28]
ðT1 T2 Þ
Energy efficiency ¼ (15)
ðT1 T0 Þ
Where, T1 and T2 correspond to the inlet and
outlet temperature and T0 represents the ambient air
temperature ( C). Experiments were carried out in
day time while ambient temperature and relative
humidity during the experiment were varied from
28.4  C to 30.3  C and from 68.2 to 71.4%,
respectively.
The energy efficiency as calculated by Equation
(16) specifies only what fraction of the available
energy was used for evaporation of surface moisture.
Therefore, a better measure for the quality of drying
process is appeared as drying efficiency, which relates
DRYING TECHNOLOGY 5
Thermal energy
Electrical ( in terms of primary energy)
Energy consumption, MJ kg-1
7 Total energy
6
water evaporated
5
4
3
2
0
Present study
LSU dryer
Drying options
Figure 2. Comparison on specific energy consumption
between mixed flow dryer and LSU dryer.
for what amount of energy wasted through exhaust
air and what amount of sensible heat of drying air is
used for evaporation. Hence, the instantaneous drying
efficiency was calculated according to the following
equation.
Drying efficiency
energy required for evaporation at time t
¼
ðinput energy exhaust energyÞ at time t
(16)
Evaluation of rice milling quality
Milling of dried samples was carried out with the
Satake Rice Dehusking Machine (Model: JLGJ 2.5) at
the Rice Milling Research Laboratory of the
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Gazipur,
Bangladesh. One hundred gram of dried sample was
taken for milling with three replications. Head rice
yield (HRY) was calculated from the milled sample
was calculated according to Thakur and Gupta[29] and
Sarker et al.[30]
Weight of head rice
% HRY ¼  100 (17)
weight of sample
Statistical analysis
The statistical analysis was carried out using a single-
factor experiment in completely randomized design
(CRD). The only factor was the different drying meth-
ods. All experiments were performed in triplicate
unless stated otherwise. The values on head rice yield
were then calculated and reported as mean values
with standard error mean. A statistical program SAS
(Version 9.3) was used for the analysis of variance
(ANOVA). Duncan’s Multiple Range Test was applied
6 MONDAL ET AL.
to compare the mean values of head rice yield among
the drying methods at 95% confidence level.
Results and discussion
Specific energy consumption
Figure 2 shows specific energy consumption calculated
from the obtained data. Specific thermal energy con-
sumption was found 3.17 MJ kg 1 water evaporated
for the present study. Ahiduzzaman and Islam[31]
reported that in industrial Louisiana State University
(LSU) dryer with drying capacity 1.5 ton h 1, the spe-
cific thermal energy consumption was 6.25 MJ kg 1
water evaporated. Regarding to SPTEC it is perceived
from Figure 2 that lower thermal energy consumption
was achieved by MFD than LSU dryer. SPTEC is also
lower than the reported values of Cao et al.[32] that
specific heat energy consumption of a mixed mode
grain dryer with drying capacity 3.6-4.5 ton h 1 for
reducing moisture content from 20 to 30% (wb) to
12.2 to 14.1% (wb) was varied from 3.84-3.95MJ kg 1
water evaporated. It may be due to the fact that
smaller duct allows the high evaporation rate that
reduces drying time thus lower specific thermal
energy consumption as a consequence. Specific elec-
trical energy consumption in terms of primary energy
in MFD was found 0.97 MJ kg 1 water evaporated. A
simple calculation based on the data presented in
Figure 2 also revealed that mean SPEEC in terms of
primary energy and SPTEC in MFD was lowered by
33.10 and 21% in contrast to the industrial LSU dryer.
Consumption of high specific energy, for the removal
of per kg water in LSU dryer, may be due to applica-
tion of oversize blower motor just based on the idea
of the dryer fabricator for paddy drying rather than
designing a blower according to the capacity of the
dryer. Therefore, by designing the blower and opti-
mum drying temperature according to throughput
capacity a significant amount of specific energy might
be saved in paddy drying industry.
Comparing only the SPTEC of the present system
with other paddy dryers it was found that the values
of SPTEC (3.17 MJ kg 1) obtained in this study,
which was lower than 5–6 MJ kg 1 water and 5.07-
5.55 MJ kg 1 water belonging to laboratory scale
spouted bed paddy dryer[33] and industrial-scale fluid-
ized bed dryer,[13] respectively. Sarker et al.[34] illus-
trated that SPTEC varied from 5.76 to 7.42 MJ kg 1
water evaporated, which is greater in regard to this
study, for the drying of paddy from initial
23.35 ± 0.86% moisture content to a desired safe mois-
ture content while experiment were carried out at
(a) 0.9 Instantaneous energy efficiency
Energy efficiency
0.88
0.86
0.84
0.82
0.14 0.18 0.22 0.26 0.3 0.34
Moisture content, kg moisture/kg dry paddy
(b) Instantaneous drying efficiency
0.17
Drying efficiency
0.15
0.13
0.11
0.09
0.14 0.18 0.22 0.26 0.3 0.34
Moisture content, kg moisture/kg dry paddy
Figure 3. Thermal performance during drying of freshly har-
vested paddy in mixed flow dryer.
35–44  C temperature in inclined bed dryer. In add-
ition, SPEEC by this study was found lower (0.97 MJ
kg 1) than from 1.44 to 1.95 MJ kg 1 water and from
1.01 to 1.06 MJ kg 1 regarded to inclined bed dryer[26]
and industrial paddy drying by multistage tech-
nique,[14] respectively. This is probably due to the fact
that power of the blower was lower, resistance to air
flow in this system was minimum due to the smaller
distance between drying chamber and blower and air
ducting system as well.
Regarding to total specific energy consumption, it
was noticed from Figure 2 that the Etotal was 4.14 MJ
kg 1 water evaporated which was lower than the
industrial LSU dryer. A comparative calculation based
on the data presented in Figure 2 indicate that total
specific energy consumption (MJ kg 1 water evapo-
rated) can be saved by 45% than industrial LSU dryer.
This is probably due to the fact that energy efficiency
of the dryer is high which has been discussed in the
next section. It is worth noting that in addition to
consumption of lower specific energy by MFD better
milling quality was also achieved which has been dis-
cussed last section of this chapter.
Energy and drying efficiency
Energy efficiency of the MFD is presented in Figure
3(a). It is apparent from Figure 3(a) that energy effi-
ciency decreases gradually with the advances of drying

(a) Drying characteristics of paddy
90
80
Relative humidity, %
70
Moisture content, %
60
50
40
30
20
10
0 50
Figure 4. Evolution of drying kinetics through outlet relative humidity and grain temperature.
until moisture content of the samples reduces to 22%
(dry basis) and at this stage a constant value of energy
efficiency was obtained. This finding indicates that
more thermal energy is supplied to the grain kernel
that resulted in increase of grain temperature without
steeping the moisture removal rate. However, it is also
noticed from Figure 3(a) that energy efficiency
increases slightly during the cease of the drying pro-
cess. This increase in energy efficiency may be due to
the diffusion of capillary moisture in the grain because
of tempering operation while drying process was con-
tinued. This outcome is supported by Chakraverty
and Das[35] while they reported that thermal perform-
ance in terms of energy efficiency varied with con-
tinuing the drying process. Energy efficiency of a
grain dryer is influenced not only by available free
moisture at grain surface but also by grain size, dry
bulb temperature, relative humidity and thermal prop-
erties of drying air reported by Kudra[27] and
Prommas et al.[36] Ambient air with lower relative
humidity might contributed in increasing energy effi-
ciency because of higher capacity of moisture of the
heated drying air. The calculated average energy effi-
ciency was 0.86 for the present drying system. This
value is higher than the reported value (0.82) of
Dissanayake et al.[37] in case of mobile dryer during
drying of freshly harvested paddy at 60  C tempera-
ture and at air flow rate of 6.0 m3 min 1. Thus the
performance of the dryer in terms of energy efficiency
was found to be better.
Instantaneous drying efficiency is shown in Figure
3(b). The instantaneous drying efficiency also varied
from 0.10 to 0.17 during the drying of paddy in MFD.
It is noticed from Figure 3(b) that at the initial stage
of drying the drying efficiency was low. It may be due
to a fact that in the initial stage of drying a significant
portion of thermal energy is used for material heating.
DRYING TECHNOLOGY 7
(b) Variations in grain and drying air
50 temperatures
45
Temperature, oC
Grain Temperature (°C)
Moisture content (%) 40 Drying Temperature (°C)
Outlet RH(%)
35
30
25
100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time, min Time, min
A gradual increased trend in drying efficiency was
noticed as the drying proceeds. As can also be seen
from Figure 3(b) that drying efficiency falls during the
last stage of drying. It can be illustrated by that as
drying advances a significant part of sensible heat of
drying air is used for removal of surface moisture of
the material. The drying efficiency drops rapidly,
when the unbound water is evaporated, because most
of the heat is now being utilized to increase the tem-
perature of the already dried layer and for the evapor-
ation of capillary water.
Drying efficiency values of this experiment was in
line with 0.06–0.18 belonging to a fluid bed dryer for
drying of corn.[28] Drying efficiency is lower for the
real material because a part of the sensible heat of
drying agent is used for pre heating of the wet mater-
ial as its temperature varied in the course of drying,
super heating of the moisture vapor in the drying air,
heating of material for the control volume.
It is important to note that Figure 3 illustrates typ-
ical variation of instantaneous drying and energy effi-
ciency indices with moisture content that represent
the capillary porous food products with significant
mass transfer resistance. It is evident that both energy
and drying efficiencies depend on the solid moisture
content even though their absolute values vary signifi-
cantly. Further, it is pointed out that energy and dry-
ing efficiency for grain drying in MFD can be
improved by recycling of the exhaust air that will
reduce total energy cost for drying.[38]
Drying kinetics of paddy
Figure 4(a) shows the drying characteristics of fresh
paddy obtained after plotting the percentage of the
moisture content (wb) against drying time (min).
Drying characteristics of this experiment matches with
8 MONDAL ET AL.
the general phenomena of drying as moisture content
of paddy reduces with drying time. Tiwari et al.[39]
also reported the identical results for drying of wheat
crop. It is obvious from Figure 4(a) that the moisture
transfer rate was high at the initial stage of drying
and dropped continuously throughout the later stages
of drying. This can be explained by a general phe-
nomenon that the moisture gradient between the
paddy surface and drying air, i.e. easy transfer of
moisture, as in the early stage of drying the grain sur-
face of was humid, into low moist heated air. This
findings integrated with the previous study of Ondier
et al.[40] that low-temperature, low-relative humidity
drying of rough rice resulted in moisture removal rate
is high at primary stage of drying followed by a grad-
ual leveling of the drying curve. Furthermore, the
reduction in moisture removal rate during the termin-
ation of drying may be due to the decrease of surface
moisture through drying process. Similar outcomes
were also pointed out from the study of Sharma
and Prasad.[41]
Figure 4(b) also shows that the drying air tempera-
ture remained almost constant around 45  C. It is eas-
ily read from the Figure 4(a) that relative humidity
(RH) of outlet air during the initial stage of drying
was low and rises gradually at the early stage of dry-
ing. This is perhaps due to a fact when low saturated
drying air is passed through the high moisture grain
kernel a mass transfer easily occurs across the length
of the dryer that contributed to increase moisture
condensation in the outlet air. Similar clarifications
were also reported by Dolinsky[42] that high initial
moisture content of paddy supported to effortless
moisture liberation thereby increasing the percentage
of relative humidity. It is seen from the Figure 4(a)
that the increase of relative humidity occurs until
moisture content of paddy drop down at 18 ± 0.2%
(wb). It was also observed that the RH value then falls
rapidly until the moisture content of paddy decreased
to 14 ± 0.3% (wb). This is because most of the sensible
heat of drying air is now utilized for overheating of
the material and removal of capillary moisture takes
longer time through diffusion process as surface mois-
ture drops below a critical value. Moreover, it was
also observed that RH curve then tends to level, i.e.
decline in small amount, during drying of paddy from
14 ± 0.3% to 12 ± 0.2% (wb). In this stage of drying
grain temperature reached at maximum value as
shown in Figure 4(b). This indicates that, further dry-
ing will progressively increase surface temperatures of
paddy that will badly affects in the fissure formation
within the paddy kernel. These fissured kernels are
58 a
56
54
b
HRY, %
b
52
50
c
48
46
Sundrying Ahiduzzaman Islam et al. Present study
[43] [44]
Identity of drying methods
Figure 5. Comparison of head rice yield of the milled samples
undergoing different drying method.
susceptible to break during milling and whitening
stages, resulting in lower head rice yield.
Quality of milled rice
Milling results of the samples dried by sun drying
method and MFD are depicted in Figure 5. The per-
centages of head rice yield obtained after milling
reported by the previous researchers for freshly har-
vested paddy dried by industrial LSU dryer located in
different region of Bangladesh are also shown in
Figure 5.[43,44] Significant difference (p  0.05) in the
head rice yield among the drying methods was
achieved. The percentages of average head rice yield
of milled sample while drying followed by MFD was
comparatively higher by 16.01 and 6.23% than the sun
dried sample and industrial LSU dryer, respectively.
This indicates that there was less grain damage while
paddy drying followed by MFD than the industrial
LSU dryer and sun drying method. Higher head rice
yield in this study probably because of discontinuous
drying of paddy that enabled the reduction of mois-
ture gradient and causing a less fissured grain as a
result. Moreover, the temperature gradient profile
(Figure 4(b)) of paddy grain during the experiment
does not varied much as compared to drying air tem-
perature that resulted in better milling quality.
Findings of this study coincide with the results of
Nimmol et al.[45] It was reported that paddy dried at
low temperature gradient resulted in small crack for-
mation in paddy. Similar outcomes were also pointed
out by Fan et al.[46] that grain damage occur when the
temperature difference between the drying air and
grain kernel is more than 43  C. Besides, lower mois-
ture gradient, higher air velocity may facilitate the
uniform distribution of temperature inside the grain
kernel by reducing the surface temperature that
resulted in good milling quality. Parallel results were
also noted by Zare and Ranjbaran[47] in regard to the

drying of paddy grain during the combined hot air
and infrared drying.
Conclusions
A small scale batch type mixed flow paddy dryer to be
used at farm level was developed employing comprehen-
sive approaches with necessary systematic calculations. A
thorough energy analysis tactics were also presented
which can be applied in performance evaluation of any
grain dryer. It is very interesting that the dryer per-
formed quite well in drying of high moisture paddy
quickly maintaining the quality of dried paddy.
Comparative analysis indicated that total specific energy
consumption in MJ kg 1 water evaporated could be
saved by 45% than industrial LSU dryer. Head rice yield
of milled sample dried by MFD was found higher at
least by 6.23% than that of existing commercial LSU
dryers. This type of energy efficient dryer can be intro-
duced as an alternative dryer for drying of high mois-
ture paddy for achieving quality milled rice in sub-
tropical countries like Bangladesh. Such dryers of vari-
ous capacities can be designed and fabricated applying
the approaches presented in this paper by altering the
heating unit and blower capacity for drying of wide
varieties of different initial moisture content grain.
Nomenclature
Mw Amount of moisture removed (kg)
Wd Weight of dried product (kg)
Xi % Initial moisture content (db)
Xo % Final moisture content (db)
qb Bulk density of paddy (kg m 3)
Qa Air mass flow rate (kg min 1)
Hnet Net thermal energy requirement (kJ)
Ca Specific heat of drying air (kJ kg 1  C 1)
T0 Ambient air temperature ( C)
T1 Drying air temperature ( C)
V Line voltage (volt)
A Cross sectional area (m2)
T2 Outlet air temperature ( C)
WG Initial weight of paddy (kg)
Pblower Power of blower fan motor (kW)
Q Air flow rate (m3 s 1)
t Total heating time (min)
v Holding capacity of the dryer (m3)
DP Pressure drop (Pa)
g Efficiency of the blower motor (%)
a, b Constant for rough rice
w Bed thickness (m)
I Line current (Ampere)
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Krishi Gobeshona
Foundation (KGF), Ministry of Agriculture, The People’s
DRYING TECHNOLOGY 9
Republic of Bangladesh for providing financial support
(Project ID No. TF 29 AM-15) for this study.
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