Design and testing of agricultural waste fired copra dryer

Abstract

Coconut plantation is abundant in konkan region of Maharashtra (India). Small landholders can improve their income through value added activities in downstream processing of coconut. One such activity would be to dry copra for preservation and subsequent oil extraction. Copra drying in konkan region is practiced largely through sun drying and chula drying. In both these drying methods, copra quality deteriorates significantly due to either open fire smoke, dust and mould growth in sun drying. There is need to have a natural convection indirect heating small mechanical copra dryer suited to the requirements of konkan farmers. This paper present design and testing of natural and forced convection indirect heating small mechanical dryer using agricultural waste as fuel. Components of dryer were drying chamber housing with two trays inside, heating chamber, burning cum heat exchanging unit i.e. furnace and chimney. The capacity of the dryer is 50 kg coconuts per batch (to hold coconut halves 50 % (w.b.) moisture content). The dryer was tested for drying performance in respect of drying air temperature, fuel consumption and quality of dried copra after the drying. The total area required for housing the dryer is 0.81 m 2. This is suitable dryer for drying of coconuts in rainy season when sun light is seldom available and chance of contaminants from quality point of view is minimum.

The conservative effects of lipopeptides from Bacillus methylotrophicus DCS1 on sunflower oil-in-water emulsion and raw beef patties quality

“…Hundreds of synthetic and natural compounds were tested for their effectiveness as free radical scavengers. Synthetic antioxidants, such as tertiary butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), octyl gallate (OG), 2,4,5-trihydroxybutyrophenone (THBP), nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) and butylated hydroxyanisol (BHA) are used in edible vegetable oil to prevent rancidification, due to their high performance and low cost (Patil, 2013). However, some reports suggest that these chemical antioxidants have several disadvantages, they may be responsible for liver damage and carcinogenesis; hence the interest of using natural products in food industry has been increased (Kim, Kim, Lee, Yoo, & Lee, 2010).…”