Objective:

After adding a solar panel and drying done on only on solar energy and airflow 12kg sawdust batch took 68 hours to dehydrate fully. So my objective was to minimize drying time and maintain temperature and humidity for better drying.

Procedure:

This batch started on 13th JAN’19. The procedure followed as follows;

  • I had taken 3.5 kg sawdust.
  • I mixed 11-liter water in sawdust.
  • I kept the mixture as it is for half an hour.
  • After that, I did the weight of it.
  • I took 10 gm sample to calculate LOD.
  • I had evenly distributed wet sawdust on each plate.
  • As follows, Plate One- 1 kg, Plate Two- 1.5 kg, Plate Three- 2 kg, Plate Four- 2.4 kg, Plate Five-2.6 kg, Plate Six- 2.6 kg.
  • I noted down the time when the batch was loaded.
  • I took samples from the south and north side to caculate after every 6 hours in daytime.
fig1. LOD data

Conclusion:

I changed dome location from there it get more exposure to sun and because of it this batch dried in 56 hours. nearly 12 hour time reduced.

Next Plan:

I planned work on minimizing drying time and adding support to open dryer because it was very difficult to open the dome dryer because of its heavy weight.