The objective of this research was to design and development of a continuous flow paddy dryer with infrared radial radiation technique. The prototype of dryer consists of two concentric circular cylinders cylinders which the paddy drying chamber is height of 1 m. The inner cylinder has diameter of 26.5 cm made from glasses and outer cylinder has diameter of 29.5 cm made from perforated (1.75 mm) steel sheet. At the center of cylinders installed 1200 w of electric infrared heater. A hopper was installed on the top of the chamber while 120 w of blower and paddy flow control were installed at bottom of chamber. The performance of the dryer in terms of specific energy consumption (SED) drying rate (DR) and quality of paddy i.e. head rice yield (HRY) and whiteness index (WI) were evaluated by drying 15 kg of paddy with initial moisture content of 23-26% (w.b.) by using the drying conditions of 80oC of drying chamber temperature 1.075 m3/min of air flow rate and 0.837 1.228 1.875 and 2.308 kg/min of paddy flow rate. The results found that paddy flow rate at 1.875 kg/min is the optimum condition because gave the highest DR lowest SEC and rice qualities (HRY and WI) closely to control.

Moisture content has a marked influence on all aspects of paddy and rice quality. These issues also have significantly importance for rice industry and economy of Thailand. Many drying process such as spouted bed technique and fluidized bed technique are extremely studied in terms of instrument design and energy consumption. However these drying processes were not suitable for high economic rice. Because of these processes performed highly damaged kernels during drying process. The objective of this project we proposed the alternative drying system that perform low damaged paddy kernels. We also were design and fabrication drying system for paddy in terms of conveyer pipe. This machine have the performance including feed rate approximately 22.83 kg/hr. drying temperature 30-120ºC air velocity 0-1.5 m/s drying time 14.64-16.91 min and energy consumption 6.02 baht/hr. We improved our machine by drying the RD41 paddy at moisture content 28 (%w.b.). We also setup drying temperatures 40°C 45°C 50°C 55°C and 60°C with air velocities 0.7m/s 1.0m/s and 1.5m/s. We found that all drying temperatures have the final moisture content lower than 15 (%w.b.) and percentage of complete paddy after drying (HRY-paddy) more than 96%. For the kernels quality we found that HRY-Brown rice tend to increase with drying temperature increased. We also found that HRY-Unbroken kernels for polishing tend to decrease between drying temperature 40°C - 50°C for air velocities 0.7m/s and 1.5m/s. Therefore these results obtained can be such a high potential approach that can be used for further developing into rice economy and industry of Thailand.

This research’s objectives were to develop an energy saving rotary dryer for paddy using hot air recovery system and to evaluate the energy using. Rotary dryer divided rotating cylinder made of 304 stainless steel 2 mm of thickness 39 cm and 200 cm of diameter and length. The inverter was used to control speed of gear motor of 0.5 HP and rotating speeds of 1-3 rpm. The inside of cylinder composed screw and capture flights. The cyclone system was used to dust separating from the system. The moisture trap contained silica gel the outlet hot air was reduced moisture and recovered using. The fiber glass insulator was applied for reducing energy loss. The heating box composed 3 set of 1600 W heaters and blower motor power was 0.5 HP. In the experiment the drying temperature was varied of 50 60 70 and 80oC and cylinder speed was varied of 1 2 and 3rpm (15.66 10.66 and 5.66min of drying time). The initial moisture content of 10 kg paddy was 29.7?0.6 %wb. The result show that the optimum conditions drying temperature and cylinder speed were 70-80oC and 1 rpm (15.66 min) and final moisture content was 9.2-11.8 %wb. From the save energy testing found that the reducing of SEC was 0.4-0.6 MJ/kg water per drying cycle. There for this developed dryer can save energy using

The objectives of this study were to develop the paddy washing machine for community rice milling machines to extend this technology to rural community and introduce to commercial production. The experiments were conducted at the Department of Agricultural Engineering and Technology Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resource Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok Bangpra Campus Sriracha Chonburi. The results showed that paddy washing machine was suitable for high moisture content paddy between 20-25 % and washing for 1-3 minutes demonstrated better milling quality than unwashed paddy. Performance test of this developed paddy washing machine using drum speed at 35 rpm drum slopes of 1 2 and 3 degree and 21.60 % MC KDML 105 paddy could reach capacity about 150-200 kg/hr. The milling quality was significantly different at 95% confidence level from unwashed paddy. Furthermore this machine provided 1% better in purity and 11% better head rice yield at the same milling degree. From the study it can be concluded that increasing drum slope gave higher capacity higher power efficiency and lower water usage. The best condition was working with drum slope of 3 degree. The paddy washing process gave higher purity of paddy head yield and power efficiency of washing process while the color property was not significantly different from unwashed paddy at the same milling degree.

This research report is manipulated that summarized the moment of research project in the subject of “The optimal image processing for paddy studies: Variety classification and rice kernel damage inspection”. This project had been take time in 12 mounts. We focused on rice variety classification and rice kernel damage inspection. We also investigated the apparent friction of rice surface. Results showed that area and size were the quantities that have the potential to classify rice variety and also rice kernel damage inspection. In addition we also found that geometric mean diameter performed characteristic to apparent friction of rice surface in kerosene. These results have the potential to be the basis information in terms of developing instrument for quality control and variety classification of cereal.