Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Abstract:
The design and construction of a thin-layer drying machine is presented. The constructed machine was tested and the results obtained shows that at temperatures ranging from 500C to 1000C, it was found that diced cassava losses more moisture at 1000C sun drying experiment was also carried out to compare the thin-layer drying with the sun drying. Comparing the sun drying with the machine drying at average temperature of 500C and ambient temperature of about 320C, it was noticed that the sun drying took two to three days to reduce the moisture content of the diced cassava to equilibrium moisture content (EMC), while this was achieved within 90 minutes with the thin-layer drying machine at 500C. The machine can accommodate 120.65 kg of cassava in one drying operation and it is capable of reducing the moisture content of fresh cassava to 0.08(dry basis) within 90 minutes.

Keywords: performance, evaluation, thin- layer, drying, machine, cassava.

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