Experimental Performance Analysis of A Pilot-Scale
Experimental Performance Analysis of A Pilot-Scale
Experimental Performance Analysis of A Pilot-Scale
Research Article
Experimental Performance Analysis of a Pilot-Scale Biomass-
Assisted Recirculating Mixed-Flow Dryer for Drying Paddy
Received 13 September 2021; Revised 31 December 2021; Accepted 3 January 2022; Published 27 January 2022
Copyright © 2022 M. Yahya et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
A large amount of heat energy is required for paddy drying processes to evaporate water from paddy grains. Currently, fossil fuels
are being used as an energy source to heat air during the drying process. However, fossil fuels cause air pollution, climate change,
and disruption of ecological balance. In this study, to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels for paddy drying, a pilot-scale
biomass-assisted recirculating mixed-flow drying system (PSBA-RMFD) for drying paddy was designed, installed, and tested.
In this PSBA-RMFD, the heat energy required for heating the drying air was provided only by biomass. The PSBA-RMFD
comprises a biomass furnace, drying column, vibratory feeder, bucket elevator, and blower. This study is aimed at evaluating
the performance of the PSBA-RMFD with a drying capacity of 400 kg/h. The performance metrics of the PSBA-RMFD were
specific energy consumption (SEC), specific thermal energy consumption (STEC), specific moisture evaporation rate (SMER),
thermal efficiency of the PSBA-RMFD, exergy efficiency of the drying section, and improvement potential of the dryer. From
the experiments conducted in this study, the values of the aforementioned performance parameters were as follows: 0.806-
8.656 kW h/kg of water evaporated; 0.385-4.136 kW h/kg of water evaporated; 0.122-1.308 kg of water evaporated/kW h; 7.82-
83.99%; 15.28-25.64%; and 858.90-1355.62 W, respectively. The paddy moisture content was reduced from 20.90% wet basis
(initial weight of 400 kg) to 13.30% wet basis (final weight of 364 kg) in 270 min, with an average temperature of 78.15°C and
average relative humidity of 8.55%. The percentage of biomass energy used in the drying system was approximately 47.77% of
the overall energy. In addition, the payback period of the PSBA-RMFD was 1.9 years.
the drying air during the drying process. Fossil fuels suffer and high adhesiveness. Meanwhile, AISI 1030 steel plate
from disadvantages, such as generation of significant has advantages such as high mechanical strenght and high
amounts of CO2, SO2, and Nox emissions. They cause air temperature resistance. The pipes of the heat exchanger were
pollution, climate change, and disruption of ecological bal- fabricated from mild steel. The drying column had three
ance. Moreover, their prices are high and will continue to main sections, namely, the storage, drying, and discharge
rise, while their resources are limited [16, 17]. sections, and its dimensions are shown in Figure 3. The dis-
Biomass energy serves as an alternative to fossil fuels and charge section consisted of a motor, gear box, sprocket,
has some advantages, such as low emissions and sustainable chain, roller, and support structure. The vibratory feeder
renewable energy sources. Moreover, it is locally available in consisted of a motor, pulley, bearing, trough, and support
abundance and is relatively low-priced. structure. The bucket elevator consisted of a pulley, belt,
A few researchers have developed various drying systems buckets, gear box, motor, feed hopper, discharge sprout,
using biomass energy sources to dry diverse products, for and casing. The drying section of the drying column had a
example, integrating the drying system with a biomass fur- cross-sectional area of 95 × 95 cm2 and was equipped with
nace (biomass burner); using fluidized bed dryers to dry inlet and outlet air ducts arranged horizontally. The inlet
paddy [17, 18], convective tray dryers to dry plantain slices and outlet air ducts consisted of four rows each. Each inlet
[19], maize [20], candle nuts [21], red chili [22], natural rub- air duct row had six full-air ducts, and each outlet air duct
ber sheet [23], cashew kernel [24], food and fish [25], chili row had five full and two half-air ducts. The cross-
[26], pineapple [27], ginger, turmeric guduchi [28], and sectional area of each air duct was 56.25 cm2. The inlet and
pineapple; and using tunnel dryers to dry fish [29] and green outlet air ducts were wedge-shaped. The photographs of air
pepper [30]. duct and drying section are shown in Figure 4. Meanwhile,
Paddy drying process consumes a large amount of heat the arrangement of air ducts and their dimensions (in the
energy to evaporate water in the paddy grains [31]. Several drying section) are shown in Figures 5 and 6.
researchers have conducted performance analyses in terms The working procedure of the PSBA-RMFD is presented
of energy consumption (specific energy) for different types in Figure 2. At first, the dryer is filled with moist paddy by a
of dryers for paddy drying; these include among others, fixed bucket elevator into the hopper at top the dryer and flowed
bed dryers [32], fixed deep bed dryers [33], inclined bed vertically downwards by gravity, while the discharge roller at
dryers [34], fluidized bed dryers [17, 18, 35–43], spouted the bottom of the dryer is turned off (discharge device is
bed dryers [40, 44], crossflow dryers [45, 46], mixed-flow closed). The discharge roller operated on the principle of a
dryers [47], recirculating grain dryers [48], rotary dryers rotary valve to allow a constant product mass flow rate.
[32, 49], impinging stream dryers [50], and combined When the moist paddy in the dryer reach the desired height,
impinging stream and pneumatic dryers [51]. The energy then the ambient air is passed through the biomass furnace
consumption of various dryers used for paddy drying is heat exchanger by a centrifugal blower to increase its tem-
summarized in Table 1. perature. The ambient air is heated up to a prescribed tem-
However, to the best of our knowledge, the performance perature with the heat generated by burning the biomass
of a pilot-scale biomass-assisted recirculating mixed-flow fuel (coconut shell charcoal) in the combustion chamber of
dryer (PSBA-RMFD) for drying paddy using biomass energy the biomass furnace. Then, the heated air is passed to the
as a source of heat energy has not yet been reported. In addi- drying section, from where the heated air is forced through
tion, Indonesia produces significantly large amounts of bio- the paddy grains outwards carrying the moisture from dry-
mass energy every year (approximately 236 million t; ing material. Then, the moist air is discharged into the envi-
756.083 million GJ), and this can be used as a source of heat ronment. In the drying section, the moist grains crosses the
energy in the drying process [52]. Therefore, this study is drying section nearly vertically while heated air (drying air)
aimed at designing, installing, and evaluating the perfor- flows horizontally. Then, the discharge roller is turned on
mance of a PSBA-RMFD for drying paddy using biomass (discharge device is opened). Subsequently, the dried paddy
as a source of heat energy. falls into the vibratory feeder, then flow to the bottom of the
bucket elevator. From here, the dried paddy is moved or cir-
2. Materials and Methods culated to the top of dryer by the bucket elevator for further
drying process. This process continues until the desired
2.1. Experimental Set-Up. A PSBA-RMFD, which comprised moisture content of the paddy grains is achieved.
a biomass furnace, drying column, vibratory feeder, bucket
elevator, and blower, was designed and installed. Photo- 2.2. Experimental Procedure. A drying experiment was con-
graphs and a schematic of the PSBA-RMFD are presented ducted to evaluate the performance of the PSBA-RMFD,
in Figures 1 and 2. The biomass furnace consisted of the fol- with a holding capacity of 400 kg. Fresh paddy was pur-
lowing key parts: a furnace chamber, heat exchanger pipes, chased from a farmer, and during the drying experiment
chimney, and blower. The wall of the furnace chamber was the ambient temperature, the air temperatures at the entry
fabricated from Sk-34 fire brick, Sk-34 cement mortar, and and exit of the biomass furnace, drying section, and the tem-
AISI 1030 steel plate materials. Sk-34 fire brick has advan- peratures of the paddy at various points inside the drying
tages such as high mechanical strenght, high temperature section were measured using thermocouples (type T, accu-
resistance, and high resistance to abrasion; Sk-34 cement racy: ±0.1°C, operating range: –200 to 400°C, Japan). An
mortar has advantages such as high temperature resistance anemometer (model HT383, accuracy: ±0.2 ms-1, operating
International Journal of Food Science 3
Table 1: Summary of energy consumption of various types of dryers for paddy drying (from the literature).
range: 0–30 ms-1, China) was used to measure the air veloc- the moisture content of the paddy. The mass of biomass fuel
ity at the inlet and outlet of the drying section. The ambient (coconut shell charcoal) was weighed using a weighing scale
temperature, air temperature, and temperature of the paddy (model TKB-0.15, accuracy: ±0.05 kg, measuring range: 0–
were recorded using a data logger (model AH4000, accuracy: 15 kg, China). The mass of the paddy was weighed using a
±0.1°C, channel 12, Japan). A grain moisture tester (type weighing scale (model Camry, accuracy: ±0.1 kg, measuring
digital, model OEM MC-7828G, accuracy: ±0.5%, measuring range: 0–100 kg, China). The ambient temperature, air tem-
range: ±0%–50%, China) was used to measure the change in peratures, temperature of the paddy, and moisture content
4 International Journal of Food Science
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 1: Photograph of the PSBA-RMFD: (a) front view, (b) back view, (c) left view, and (d) right view.
of the paddy were recorded every 30 min. The uncertainty of 2.3. Performance Analysis. The performance of the PSBA-
measurements was determined using the following equation RMFD, in terms of the drying rate ðm _ water Þ, specific
[53, 54]: energy consumption (SEC), specific thermal energy con-
sumption (STEC), specific electrical energy consumption
" 2 2 2 #1/2 (SEEC), specific moisture evaporation rate (SMER), ther-
∂R ∂R ∂R
Wr = w + w +⋯+ w , ð1Þ mal efficiency of the dryer ðηth Þ, exergy efficiency of the
∂x1 1 ∂x2 2 ∂xn n drying sections ðηEx Þ, improvement potential (IP), and effi-
ciency of the biomass furnace ðηBF Þ was determined using
where W R is the total uncertainty in the result measure- the equations presented in Table 2. The data obtained
ment; x1 , x2 , ⋯xn are the independent variables; and w1 , from the performance analysis of the PSBA-RMFD during
w2 , ⋯wn are the corresponding uncertainties in the afore- the drying experiment of the paddy are presented in
mentioned independent variables. Table 3.
International Journal of Food Science 5
Gear box
Electric motor
Paddy in
Drying column
Bucket elevator
Storage section
T7 Drying section
T5 T10
Biomass
furnace T8
T6
T11 BLOWER
T3
T9 Discharge
Inlet air Outlet air
Section
Vibratory
feeder
T4
Electric motor
Blower
T1 T2 Paddy out
95 cm
Drying column 60 cm
15 cm
Storage section
105 cm
Discharge section 50 cm
(a) (b)
Figure 4: (a) Photograph of the air duct. (b) Photograph of the drying section.
Height
Drying section
Figure 5: Air duct arrangement in the drying section (+ hot air inlet; – moist air outlet).
Eq.
Performance indicator Equation Ref.
no.
Specific energy consumption _ water
SEC = Ebmf + EBbf + EMdr + EMbe + EMvf + EBmfd /m (2) [43]
_ water
STEC = Ebmf /m [18,
Specific thermal energy consumption (3)
34]
_ water
SEEC = EBbf + EMdr + EMbe + EMvf + EBmfd /m [18,
Specific electrical energy consumption (4)
34]
Specific moisture evaporation rate _ water /Ebmf + EBbf + EMdr + EMbe + EMvf + EBmfd (5)
SMER = m [55]
Drying rate _ water = M Cdb,t+Δt − M Cdb,t /Δt
m (6) [54]
Paddy moisture content (wet basis) M Cwb = mwetpd − mbonedrypd /mwetpd (7) [54]
Paddy moisture content (dry basis) M Cdb = mwetpd − mbonedrypd /mbonedrypd (8) [54]
Moisture ratio MR = Mt/Mo (9) [43]
Electrical energies required by blower of biomass furnace, motor of EBbf , EMbe , andEMvf = VIcosϕ (10) [22]
bucket elevator, and motor of vibratory feeder
Electrical energies required by the motor of discharge roller and pffiffiffi
EMdr and EBmfd = 3VIcosϕ (11) [17]
blower of mixed-flow dryer
Dryer thermal efficiency _ water H fg /Ebmf + EBbf + EMbe + EMvf + EBmfd
ηth = m (12) [47]
Table 3: Data from the drying experiment, used for the performance analysis of the PSBA-RMFD.
Relative humidity
Time Moisture content (%,wet Temperature (°C)
(%)
(min) basis)
T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9 T10 T11 Rhamb Rhi,ds Rho,ds
0 20.90 30.30 25.00 30.60 79.50 77.50 35.50 46.30 37.50 34.90 40.40 34.10 65.37 7.22 57.45
30 19.50 31.40 25.50 30.70 80.70 77.80 38.20 48.20 38.20 36.40 40.70 35.10 62.63 9.64 53.72
60 17.60 34.20 26.10 31.70 85.80 80.40 36.40 49.30 38.60 36.50 42.20 39.60 53.04 6.77 51.69
90 15.90 34.70 27.20 32.60 80.80 75.40 36.30 49.20 39.00 35.20 44.10 39.80 56.39 9.02 53.49
120 14.90 34.40 25.80 35.50 86.30 78.60 38.30 49.60 38.90 37.20 46.70 39.70 50.76 9.31 51.85
150 14.40 32.50 25.40 33.50 86.80 81.40 37.80 49.90 39.30 38.50 45.60 38.90 56.86 7.53 52.38
180 13.90 33.50 25.90 33.10 78.20 76.30 35.70 51.00 39.40 39.90 45.30 39.70 55.01 7.97 49.41
210 13.70 33.40 25.70 31.50 81.70 77.00 37.70 51.30 39.50 40.90 44.20 40.30 54.43 9.57 48.88
240 13.50 34.70 26.40 32.90 88.90 78.40 38.10 51.90 38.80 41.00 46.50 38.50 52.45 9.22 44.89
270 13.30 35.60 27.30 33.20 86.40 78.70 38.30 54.70 39.40 41.70 48.40 40.10 53.13 9.26 39.75
Rhamb: ambient relative humidity; Rhi,ds: relative humidity entering the drying section; Rho,ds: relative humidity leaving the drying section.
8 International Journal of Food Science
Table 4: Investment cost of the PSBA-RMFD. average relative humidity of 8.55%. The drying rate is
defined as the mass of moisture removed from the product
Item USD per unit time and it was estimated using Eq. (6). The drying
Biomass furnace 314.75 rate was found to be 1.688–18.126 kg/h, with an average of
Drying column 649.09 7.792 kg/h. As shown in Figure 10, paddy drying occurred
Bucket elevator 669.02 in the falling rate period, and constant drying rate period
Vibratory feeder 220.67 was not observed. In the falling rate period, the material sur-
face is no longer saturated with water, and the drying rate is
Air duct 174.86
controlled by diffusion of moisture from the interior of solid
Blower 909.28 to the surface. During the falling rate period, the drying rate
Labor for construction and installation 909.28 decreased with increasing in drying time, and this is due to
Total 3,846.95 the decreased mass transfer rate with increasing in drying
time.
The variation of the moisture ratio (MR) with the drying
corresponding average values of 33.47°C and 56.01%. The time is illustrated in Figure 11. It is defined as the ratio of the
ambient temperature affects the ambient relative humidity; initial moisture content of paddy to the instantaneous mois-
for example, a high ambient temperature results in a low ture content of paddy during the drying process, and it was
ambient relative humidity and vice versa. calculated using Eq. (9). The moisture ratio of paddy in
The efficiency of the biomass furnace as well as the tem- PSBA-RMFD decreased exponentially with increasing dry-
peratures of air entering and leaving the biomass furnace ing time. The continuous decrease in the moisture ratio indi-
with time is presented in Figure 7. These temperatures var- cates that diffusion has governed the internal mass transfer.
ied over 30.60–35.50°C and 78.20–88.90°C, with average The variation of the SMER with the drying time is pre-
values of 32.73 and 83.51°C, respectively. The efficiency of sented in Figure 12. It is defined as the ratio of the moisture
biomass furnace is the ratio of the extraction of heat energy evaporated from wet product to the energy input to the dry-
from biomass furnace or heat energy used for drying process ing system and it was calculated using Eq. (5). The SMER
to the heat energy produced from burning of biomass fuel, was in the range of 0.122–1.308 kg/kW h, with an average
and it was calculated using Eq. (18). The efficiency of the of 0.562 kg/kW h. Figure 12 also shows the variation of the
biomass furnace was found to be 70.63–87.70%, with an SEC, STEC, and SEEC with the drying time. The SEC is
average value of 79.53% and an air mass flow rate of the ratio of the total energy input (thermal energy + electri-
0.1084 kgs-1. cal energy) to the drying system to the moisture evaporated
The air temperature and relative humidity values of air from wet material, the STEC is the ratio of the thermal
entering and leaving the drying section with the drying time energy input to the drying system to the moisture evapo-
are presented in Figure 8. The temperatures of air entering rated from wet material, the SEEC is the ratio of the electri-
and leaving the drying section were in the ranges of 75.40– cal energy input to the drying system to the moisture
81.40°C and 46.30–54.70°C, respectively, with corresponding evaporated from wet material, and these were calculated
average values of 78.15°C and 50.14°C. The relative humidity using Eqs. (2)–(4), respectively. The SEC ranged between
values of air entering and leaving the drying section were in 0.806 and 8.657 kW h/kg, with an average of 4.119 kW h/
the ranges of 6.77%–9.57% and 39.75%–57.45%, with corre- kg, while the STEC and SEEC ranged between 0.385 and
sponding average values of 8.55% and 50.35%. As shown in 4.136 kW h/kg and 0.421 and 4.521 kW h/kg, respectively,
Figure 8, the air temperature value leaving the drying section with corresponding average values of 1.968 and 2.151 kW
increased with increasing in drying time, while the air rela- h/kg. As seen from Figure 12, the SMER decreased with
tive humidity value decreased with increasing in drying time. increasing in drying time, while the SEC, STEC, and SEEC
These, due to the heat and mass transfer coefficients, increased with increasing in drying time, and these is due
decreased with increasing in the drying time. to the decreased the moisture removal rate with increasing
The paddy temperatures at the inlet, center, and outlet of in drying time.
the drying section with the drying time are illustrated in The inflow, outflow, and loss of exergy for the drying
Figure 9. These temperatures varied from 34.90 to 41.70°C, section during the drying experiment versus the drying time
40.40 to 48.40°C, and 34.10 to 40.30°C, respectively, with are presented in Figure 13, and these were calculated using
corresponding average values of 38.22, 44.41, and 38.58°C. Eqs. (13)–(15), respectively. These three parameters were
As shown in Figure 9, the paddy temperature at the center found to be over 1439.42–1959.34 W, 249.24–398.17 W,
of the drying section was observed to be higher than the and 1154.94–1630.24 W, respectively, with corresponding
paddy temperatures at the inlet and outlet of the drying sec- average values of 1708.32, 330.08, and 1378.24 W.
tion due to high heat transfer rate in the drying section. The thermal dryer and exergy efficiencies of the PSBA-
The variation in the paddy moisture content and drying RMFD versus the drying time are presented in Figure 14.
rate with the drying time is presented in Figure 10. The The thermal efficiency of the drying system is the ratio of
paddy moisture content inside the drying section was the energy used for moisture evaporation to the energy input
reduced from 20.90% wet basis (initial weight 400 kg) to to the drying system, the exergy efficiency is the ratio of
13.30% wet basis (final weight 364 kg) in 270 min, for a mass exergy use in the drying of the product to exergy of the dry-
flow rate of 0.1084 kg/s, average temperature of 78.15°C, and ing air supplied to the drying chamber, and these were
International Journal of Food Science 9
Table 5: Equations used to determine the production cost, profit, payback period, and net present value of the PSBA-RMFD.
90 80 1.2
80 70
60
SMER (kg/kWh)
7 1.0
Paddy temperature (°C)
50
6
5 0.8
40
4 0.6
30 3 0.4
2
20 1 0.2
0 0.0
10 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270
0 Drying time (min)
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270
SEC SEEC
Drying time (min)
STEC SMER
Tpaddy,Inlet
Tpaddy,center Figure 12: Variation of SMER, SEC, STEC, and SEEC with drying
time.
Tpaddy,outlet
25 20 2000
Moisture content (% wb)
18
Exergy (W)
20 16
Drying rate (kg/h)
1500
14
15 12
10 1000
10 8
6 500
5 4
2 0
0 0 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 Drying time (min)
Drying time (min)
Exergy inflow
Moisture content Exergy outflow
Drying rate Exergy loss
Figure 10: Variation of moisture content and drying rate with Figure 13: Variation of exergies with drying time.
drying time.
90 1600
Efficiency (%)
60
1000
50
800
40
600
30
20 400
10 200
0 0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270
Drying time (min)
Figure 14: Variation of efficiencies and improvement potential with drying time.
Table 7: Performance evaluation of the PSBA-RMFD. Table 8: Indonesian national rice quality standard (SNI No.01-
6128-2015) [58].
Parameter Unit Value
Initial moisture content (wet basis) % 20.90 Quality class
No. Quality components Medium
Final moisture content (wet basis) % 13.30 Premium
°
1 2 3
Average drying air temperature C 78.15
1 Level of polishing (%, min) 100 95 90 80
Average drying air relative humidity % 8.55
2 Moisture content (%, max) 14 14 14 15
Drying time Min 270
3 Head rice (%, min) 95 78 73 60
kg/kW
Average SMER 0.56 4 Broken (%, max) 5 20 25 35
h
5 Grain grouts (%, max) 0 2 2 5
kW h/
Average SEC 4.119 6 Red grain (%, max) 0 2 3 3
kg
kW h/ 7 Yellow/damaged grain (%, max) 0 2 3 5
Average STEC 1.968
kg 8 Grain of whitewash (%, max) 0 2 3 5
kW h/ 9 Foreign object (%, max) 0 0.02 0.05 0.2
Average SEEC 2.151
kg 10 Grains (grains/100 g, max 0 1 2 3
Average thermal efficiency of the PSBA-RMFD % 36.17
Average exergy efficiency % 19.46
Average improvement potential W 1114
Average efficiency of biomass furnace % 79.53
Percentage of biomass energy used in the PSBA-
% 47.77
RMFD
mwetpd : Mass of wet of paddy (kg) guruan Tinggi (PTUPT) research grant scheme (No. 010/
Rhamb: Ambient relative humidity (%) 27.O10.5/PN/VII/2021).
Rhi,ds and Rho,ds: Relative humidity entering and leaving the
drying section, respectively (%)
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