CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 General

Food, clothing and shelter are the basic necessities of life. But 20th century

has introduced a fourth major need of mankind that is energy. Energy

consumption to dry agricultural products often approaches and can exceed the

energy required to produce the crop (shove, 1977). Since crop drying is a high

energy use operation, the cost of drying is directly related to energy availability

and cost. As energy cost rises, it becomes imperative to conserve and explore

alternative energy sources.

There are two sources of energy in this modern and scientific era, that is

primary and secondary energy sources. In primary sources, energy is in the form

of natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear. The supply of fossil fuels such as natural gas,

oil and coal is limited and their burning is polluting the environment. To get

nuclear energy, large investment for nuclear plant is required. Because of

unsolved problem of safe isotope disposal, operational safety and high thermal

pollution, it is difficult to adopt this source of energy. In secondary sources,

energy is in the form of geothermal, solar and tidal waves. Geothermal energy is

limited and its most abundant forms are hot water and hot rock. Tidal energy of

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the ocean is economically difficult to obtain and present researchers showing

significant interest in these forms of energies (Biermann, 1975).

Keeping in view the difficulties faced in the use of forms of energies

identified above, the researches are endeavoring hard to utilize alternative

sources of energy to satisfy a major portion of energy needs. From among the

available options, increasing attention is being directed to the utilization of heat

from solar radiation. Sun is main source of all energies responsible for the

survival of life on this planet. The sun’s surface is at a temperature of 5727 oC due

to the fusion process by which hydrogen isotopes are changed into helium

(Annonymous, 1978). Solar energy has several unique features which place it in

an advantageous position; solar energy seems to hold much promise for the

future; solar energy is universally available; the environmental impacts of solar

energy are minimal and the effects of solar energy on the economy are highly

beneficial.

The incoming solar radiation from the sun passes through the atmosphere

and interacts with the matter and as a result it is partly scattered back and partly

absorbed. Of the solar radiation transmitted through space about 50% is

absorbed in the earth’s surface, while 25% is absorbed in the atmosphere, and the

remaining 25% is reflected back into space by clouds and the ground (Friday at

al, 1980). Open sun drying technique is not only slow but also result in the

deterioration of quality of the dried products because of contamination by dirt

and insects. Sometimes this method damages the crop because of exposure to

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adverse weather conditions. It involves extra labor for spreading , exposing the

grain and required considerable exposed floor area . It does not provide uniform,

controlled drying. Drying period is relatively long and is not safe from intrusion

by animals and insects. Depending upon meteorological conditions, sometimes

the crop is adversely affected by rain and adulteration and make it difficult to

maintain better drying quality (Lee et al. 1981).

The earth receives a tremendous amount of energy even on a cloudy day.

In fog, the energy transmitted to earth is 18% of the maximum (Farber, 1980). It is

worth to note that this planet receives 8x1020 Kcal/year of the energy from the

sun, which is equivalent to about 32,000 times the energy being used at present

time, (salariya and singh, 1978). This situation is very encouraging and gives

excellent incentive to utilize sun’s energy, which is abundantly. One of the

methods traditionally used to preserve agriculture products is to dry them by

spreading in a thin layer on the ground, Which causes the deterioration of

quality of the dried products due to contamination by dirt and insects.

Sometimes, this method damages the crop because of exposure to adverse

weather conditions. It involves extra labor for spreading, exposing the grain and

requires considerable exposed floor area. It does not provide uniform, controlled

drying. Drying period is relatively long and is not safe from intrusion by animals

and insects. Depending upon meteorological condition, sometimes the crop is

adversely affected by rain and adulteration and make it difficult to maintain

better drying quality.

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 However, artificial drying methods have been developed for which fossil

fuels are being used in many other countries. Since our farmer is still unable to

utilize this technology of crop drying due to higher prices and un availability of

fossil fuels, therefore, an acceptable and economical solution is still awaited for

efficient drying of agricultural products. Keeping in view the problems

encountered by framing community in drying agriculture products, it is the need

of hour to develop a suitable technique for better drying of agricultural products.

Socio-economic conditions of farmer entail that technology should be simple and

cheaper for adaptation. This will definitely help in reduction in the post harvest

losses if the solar dryers are designed properly for efficient and economical

drying of agricultural products for long storage.

Use of solar dryer, with transparent glass or polyethylene cover over

metallic roof significantly increases the energy absorption and drying potential

of heated air, (Biswas and Tandon, 1978) and prevents losses that occur in the

traditional method of sun drying. Generally solar dryers are fabricated using

glass as a transmitter but obviously glass is expensive to install and difficult to

maintain. Polyethylene has a solar energy transmittance 70%to 80% compared

with glass, (Schoenau and Mosey, 1975).

Therefore it is imperative to develop a simple, practicable and economical

dryer using just pressure of air which can work even in absence of sunshine,

since it is cheaper and easier to install. Hence a low cost air drier for grains was

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developed to dry grains. The dryer was studied for its effectiveness in drying of

maize, wheat and rice seeds.

1.2 Objectives:

The study was designed to achieve the following objectives.

1. Fabrication of simple air drier for grains.

2. Performance evaluation and field testing of the air drier for different

grains.

3. To compare drying rates of different crops with that of conventional

crop drying method (open sun drying).