Design of drying chamber and biomass furnace for sun-biomass hybrid rice-drying machine

In most Asian countries, rice drying is carried out manually by exposing rice to sunlight. However, problem occurs when rain season comes. Lack of sunlight deters the drying process. This paper proposes a design of mechanical rice drying machine with hybrid sun-biomass energy source. Pahl & Beitz method, which consists of four steps process: function planning and clarification, design concept, design prototype, and design details; are used as design methodology. Based on design result and calculation, in this paper propose specifications for drying machine and biomass furnace. Drying chamber is a continuous flow system with pneumatic-conveyor as blower. This hybrid utilizes two types of energy sources, sun and biomass. The proposed machine has capacity of 500 kilograms per cycle using 455 Watt of energy, which is more efficient than ordinary heater. Biomass furnace utilizes heat transfer by means of arranging 64 pieces of stainless steel pipes of 0.65 diameters in parallel.