Comparison of Drying Kinetics of Paddy Using a Pneumatic Conveying Dryer with and without a Cyclone

The objective of the present work is to find the possibility of reducing the high initial moisture content of wet paddy using a small-scale, low-cost pneumatic conveying dryer that can be provided for each farming household. The dryer without a cyclone equipped at the exit of the dryer is studied and the data obtained from this system is compared with those obtained previously from the dryer with a cyclone. Parametric effects of the following variables are examined: velocity of drying air from 20 to 30 m/s, feed rate of rough rice from 150 to 350 kg/h, and drying air temperature from 35 to 70°C. From the experimental results it is found that the drying process with and without a cyclone are able to lead to very rapid drying without any grain quality problems such as cracks in the rice kernel. For the same experimental conditions, the cyclone-equipped dryer gives around 1% higher decrease of moisture content, 2°C higher average surface temperature of paddy, 3–4% higher average percentage of head rice yield, and 2 kg/h higher average evaporation rate. However, the energy consumption per evaporated mass of water is 20–30% lower than the non-cyclone-equipped dryer.