Development of a Corn Drying System

Abstract

Corn as a staple farm produce are usually harvested at a point or time when the moisture content is more than 25% (wet.basis).,and therefore, it is easily attacked by fungi and other diseases causing organism and even physical damage, thereby reducing the market value of the crop.  Drying must be carried out on those products to prevent deterioration. The objectives of this research are to develop a device that can reduce the moisture content of corn using electronic components and equally carryout evaluation on the device.  Shelled corns with initial moisture content of between 25-30% (w.b.) is the major material used in this research work. A Heating element incorporated in the device supplied the needed heat which was delivered to the drying chamber by the help of a centrifugal blower. The drying experiment was carried out at three different temperature thus; 45 oC, 55 oC and 65oC. The moisture content at this varying temperature was used to determine the drying rate and the drying efficiency. The results showed clearly that the dryer air temperature affect the drying rate, the efficiency of drying, and the quality of the material. It is equally clear that the best drying rate and temperature is  65oC average 4,95% / hour, high efficient at drying temperature 55oC and 65oC equal to 86,27% and 83,51%, and best material quality with dryer temperature 55oC.