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Research on Cassava Drying, Application and Promotion of the Reversible Airflow Flatbed Dryers for Sliced Cassava



Author(s)

Tran Van Tuan, Le Quang Vinh and Nguyen Van Xuan

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DOI:10.17265/2159-5828/2015.03.007

Center for Agricultural Energy and Machinery, Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam

The study was conducted by researchers of the Research Center for Agricultural Energy and Machinery (CAEM) of the Ho Chi Minh City Nong Lam University (NLU) with the objectives of researching on drying ways for cassava and of evaluating the adaptability of the reversible-airflow dryers in drying of cassava. The results obtained were as follows: done with thin-layer drying experiments, deep-layer drying experiments in the lab, and conducted drying experiments at the cassava dryer in actual production scale with two capacity sizes of 8 tons/batch and 16 tons/batch, that operates based on principle of reversible-airflow drying (SRA dryers). By the means of drying experiments, the performance of the SRA dryers such as optimal drying temperature, drying time, drying airflow reversal timing, moisture content uniformity of the sliced cassava mass after finishing drying process, drying cost, etc. was defined, the optimal drying temperature was 70 °C, the total actual drying time for finishing one batch was 25-28 hours, applicable time for drying airflow reversal was after drying 16 hours since startup, the deviation in moisture content of the cassava mass after drying was just 2%-3%, the drying costs (per one kg of dried cassava) calculated were in turns VND407/kg at the SRA-8 dryer (8 tons/batch), and VND351/kg at the SRA-16 dryer (16 tons/batch). Obviously, comparing with the sale price of dry cassava at present, these levels of drying cost are accounting for 7%-10%, which are suitable and acceptable. Thus, investment of the dryers for sliced cassava would be effective and contribute to bring more income for Vietnamese cassava farmers and dryer end-users.

Cassava, sliced cassava, SRA dryer, wood-chip furnace.