Performance Investigation of a Natural Convection Grain Dryer for Paddy Drying

Providing food security to all the people around the world is a challenging task in the current scenario. Improving the method of food preservation and minimizing the grain loss is required for achieving the food security. Rice is considered to be the major staple food all over India. Proper drying and removing moisture from paddy can increase the availability of rice to all the people across India. The present work focuses on developing a natural convection grain dryer for the coastal climate of Odisha, India. The natural convection dryer being developed uses the heat energy from the combustion of coal to heat air. The hot dry air is passed over paddy for drying. In this dryer variation of drying air temperature and amount of biomass required for proper drying of different amounts of paddy being dried are analysed. Finally the moisture removal rate from paddy for different weight and different relative humidity is studied.