Development and Performance Evaluation of Cassava Chip Dryer

Abstract

Over the years, the traditional method of cassava chips production by sun drying which exposes the product to various contaminations and post-harvest losses is usually employed by local farmers. Therefore, this research designed and fabricated a cassava chip dryer that can produce contamination-free cassava chips at higher efficiency and less drying time compare to local sun drying method. The study developed a cassava drying machine using locally available material for small scale industries. The machine was designed using an electric element as a heat source while it was encased in a L- shaped frame with dimensions 450 × 650 × 650 mm. The machine consists of an upper chamber, lower chamber, support frame, drying trays, pulley, bearing and V-belt. An electric motor of 1 horse power was mounted on the dryer to supply electric power to the blower in order to blow the hot air generated by the heating coil in the lower chamber to the trays at the upper chamber to dry the cassava chip The temperature controller device was installed on the side of the dryer to regulate heat from heating element based on the signal received from the sensor and maintain uniform heat distribution among all the trays. The results from the experiment showed that at no load, the drying rate was maintained at 70 oC at the total time trials of 200 minutes. At loading, the drying rate was maintained at 70 oC at the total time trials of 240 minutes. There is a great improvement in drying cassava chip using the machine with a drying time of 1,800 minutes and 80 % efficiency compared to the sun drying method. Also, the percentage moisture content reduced from 65.02 % to 13.10 % at the drying time of 240 minutes. The cost evaluation shows that the cassava chips that were developed was affordable.