IMPROVEMENT OF THE FARMERS' DIRECT-TYPE COPRA DRYER

Abstract

A survey on the farmers' direct-type tapahan copra dryer was conducted to monitor the configuration of the dryer, depth of heat source, fuel consumption and time of drying. Three copra dryers with square, parabolic, and rectangular pit configurations were constructed and evaluated at varying depths of heat source of 2.3 m, 1.8 m, and 1.3 m. The performance of the farmers' copra dryer using the 1.67 m average depth of heat source was compared to the performance of the dryers under study.
Results showed that the square dryer at 1.8 m depth performs significantly better compared to the other types of dryer at different depth levels and the farmers' tapahan dryers. It has the shortest average drying time of 8.67 h, lowest average fuel consumption of 566.67 husks, and highest averages in drying rate and drying rate per unit fuel consumption of 31.08 kg/h and 0.137 kg/h-kg, respectively. The copra color produced was similar regardless of dryer type.