dc.contributor.author | Tonui, K S | |
dc.contributor.author | Mutai, E B K | |
dc.contributor.author | Mutuli, D A | |
dc.contributor.author | Mbuge, D O | |
dc.contributor.author | Too, K V | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2014-08-18T13:33:21Z | |
dc.date.available | 2014-08-18T13:33:21Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2014-04 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Tonui, K. S., Mutai, E. B. K., Mutuli, D. A., Mbuge, D. O., & Too, K. V. (2014). Design and Evaluation of Solar Grain Dryer with a Back-up Heater. Research Journal of Applied Sciences , Engineering and Technology 7(15), PP. 3036 - 3043 | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | http://www.maxwellsci.com/print/rjaset/v7-3036-3043.pdf | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11295/73817 | |
dc.description.abstract | The aim of the study was to design and construct a solar grain dryer integrated with a simple biomass
burner using locally
available materials. This was to address the limitations of the natural sun drying for example
drying exposure, liability to pests and rodents, over
-
dependence on sun and escalated cost of mechanical dryers.
This became beneficial especially in reducing po
st
-
harvest losses as well as helping in the preservation of
agricultural product. The dryer is composed of solar collector, drying chamber, back
-
up heater and airflow system.
The design was based on the study area of Mau summit located in Nakuru County, Ke
nya. The average ambient
conditions were 26°C air temperature and 72% relative humidity with daily global solar radiation incident on
horizontal surface of about 21.6 MJ
/
m
2
/
day
. A minimum of 3.77 m
2
solar collector area was required to dry a batch
of 100 kg maize grain in 6 h with natural convection from the initial moisture content of 21% to final moisture
content of 13% wet basis. A prototype dryer designed was fabricated with minimum collector are
a of 0.6 m
2
and
used in the experiment
.
Forced convection was employed to reduce drying time.
The thermal efficiencies of the solar
and solar assisted dryer were 39.9 and 57.7%, respectively.
The back
-
up heating system improved the efficiency of
the dryer
by 17.8% and reduced drying time substantially | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | University of Nairobi | en_US |
dc.subject | Back - up heater, design, grain, solar collector, solar dryin g | en_US |
dc.title | Design and Evaluation of Solar Grain Dryer with a Back-up Heater | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |
dc.type.material | en_US | en_US |