UTILIZATION OF THE VITAL ENERGY (BIOGAS) FOR DRYING SOME CROPS

Abstract

In the drying process heat is used to evaporate the moisture from the grain and moving air to carry away the evaporated moisture. Biogas is a new source of fuel for mechanization of agriculture and village industries. Biogas production occurs in the digester, a tank containing the liquid manure, and facilities for collecting the biogas. The present study conducted to evaluate the use of biogas for drying of paddy rice variety, Giza 176 has moisture content from 18 to 24% and com variety, Giza 2 has moisture content from 19 to 25%.). To achieve the study a manufacture prototype of biogas dryer manufactured in Agric. Eng. Res. Institute workshop was used. This prototype consist of: (1) Body of dryer, (2) Fire chamber, (3) Exhaust chamber, (4) Neck dryer, (5) Rotary dryer, (6) Airflow fan, (7) Wet air removed fan, (8) Lighter, (10) Motor, (I1) Belts, (12) Pulleys, (13) Feeding tank, (14) source of gas, and (15) Storage tank. This study depended on using new source energy of Methane gas (Biogas) without pollution to keeping of environment. Some properties of drying crops were measured under the following different operational factors included the following : drying time, quantity of grains in batch, rate of gas, wet air removed rate, airflow rate, temperature of airflow, kind of gas and agitator speed.