Date of Publication :26th December 2022

Abstract: In this Present work, experimental studies have been carried out with paddy grains through traditional Open Sun Drying (OSD) to investigate the better drying efficiency with better quality product along with economic feasibility for the effective application of a low cost drying method in rural areas. Here, the effect of drying time and drying temperature on moisture content (wet basis) removal of paddy grains through traditional Sun drying where four different batch sizes viz. (1, 2, 4 and 8) kg have been taken for experimental study during harvesting period of paddy grains on Agartala climate where temperatures are recorded as (21, 20 and 18) degree centigrade with relative humidity as (82, 80 and 79) percent on 15th, 30th December 2021 and 15 January 2022 respectively. Four samples are collected keeping 3 hours interval from four different corners of 0.5 square meter floor area for each experiment. Temperature of products, temperature around the products, solar temperature and moisture evaporation rate are the main important parameters in OSD. It is observed from results that 8 kg has showed comparatively more economical drying among four batch sizes. Drying temperature of 20 degree centigrade with relative humidity 80 percent is found suitable for drying. The best result for these experiments is obtained as 12.1 percent moisture content (wet basis) for a drying period of 18 hours with 8 kg batch size at 20 degree centigrade with relative humidity 80 percent.

Reference :