S. Dhanushkodi, Vincent H. Wilson and K. Sudhakar
Design and construction of biomass dryer for small scale cashew kernel drying is presented in this work. It uses the biomass heater for producing hot air, blower for supplying hot air and drying chamber for accommodating the products to be dried. Performance characteristics of the biomass dryer including system efficiency has been evaluated experimentally based on drying of 40 kg of cashew kernel. The dryer is capable of producing hot air continuously with temperature ranging between 70 to 75°C. Performance analysis showed that the moisture reduction from 9% to 4% was achieved within 7 hours in biomass drying and it had taken almost 15 hours in open sun drying. The system efficiency of the dryer was found to be 9.5%. The main features of the dryer is to maintain uniform temperature across the tray by using chimney effect and an acceptable system efficiency. The dryer has been designed as an substitute to the electrical and conventional dryers. It is simple in construction and it is suitable for small scale cashew industries present in both rural and urban areas of India.
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