Diseño y Construcción de un Secador del Tunel para la Deshidratación del Maiz

Abstract

The objective of this research is to design and build a tunnel dryer to satisfy the grain drying and dehydration needs of the Industrial Chemistry Laboratory of the Science Faculty of the Polytechnic School of Chimborazo. The sizing of the equipment was made through engineering calculations of experimental data and process variables obtained in laboratory tests. The equipment is built of rectangular structural profile, has several components: hoppers, two fans, a digital sensor that controls the temperature, stainless steel AISI 304 and 430 for the drying and aeration chamber, polystyrene conveyor belt, 4 rollers coupled for its movement with a speed reducer and the innovation of using steam produced by the boiler as a heat source through the coils. It has characteristics such as: 25 Kg/h of load capacity, 3.00 m long, 0.50 m wide and height, conveyor belt of 6 m long and 0.28 m wide in which it is dragged by a speed reducer at 0.11 . The steam to be supplied to the coils is at a pressure of 10 psi and a latent heat of 637.05 . The corn was dried in half an hour at 60 °C with an initial humidity of 30.5% and reaching a final humidity of 13.7% on the coast and from 31.2% to 14.4% in the highlands, with an efficiency of 84.33%.