Reducingenergyconsumptionfor thedryingof300tonsof ricepaddyinsilos withheat recovery

Abstract

The research aimed to reduce the energy used for drying of 300 tons of rice paddy in silos by using heat exchange equipment for heat recovery. Then, the old and new type of heat recovery equipment was compared with the result under the average environmental temperature throughout the test of approximately 32ºC.The results showed that the hot air temperature from the rice husk furnace of both tests was about 80ºC but the experiment using the new heat recovery method can save 12.88% or about 6,408 baht (on purchase husk on 8 baht/kg) of rice husk when compared with the old method. The study shows that the energy that can be saved is 1,837,080 MJ/year, cost savings are 145,800baht/year,present value(NPV)equals237,260.87bahtandtheinternal rateof return(IRR) isaround17.32%. Payback time is 6 years and is considered to be a worthwhile investment.

Keywords

• paddy
• husk
• heat recovery
• investment