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.

The objectives of this research were to determine the suitable times of pork slices drying using microwave followed by hot air and to find specific energy consumption during drying. The physical characteristic (color and hardness) and the sensory test of dried pork slices were also investigated. Pork slices with the sizes of 50x50x1.3 and 50x50x2.2 millimeters were dried using the microwave at the powers of 160 320 480 640 and 800 watts until the samples did not burn during drying. Then the samples were dried using hot air at a temperature of 110oC until the moistures of the samples were lower than 20% dry basis. Based on the experimental results it was found that the suitable times of the samples drying using microwave were 50-600 seconds which depended on the microwave powers and the pork thicknesses. In hot air drying period drying times of the samples with thicknesses of 1.3 and 2.2 millimeters were 30 and 45 minutes respectively. The microwave powers had no significant effect on the redness (a value) and yellowness (b value) of dried pork the hardness of dried pork and the specific energy consumption (P<0.05). The pork thicknesses had the significant effect on the lightness (L value) and yellowness (b value) of dried pork the hardness of dried pork and the specific energy consumption (P<0.05). Moreover sensory scores of the dried pork obtained from this research were close to those obtained from the local market.

This research aims to study the appropriate drying condition and extraction solvent for extracting protein and antioxidants from the porcine placenta. Three levels of drying temperature were used in this study which were 50 60 and 70ºC the result shows that the best drying condition for porcine placenta was 70ºC for 4 hours because this condition provided the least drying time and the lowest moisture content of porcine placenta (3.80±3.36% dry basis). After that the fresh and dried porcine placenta were extracted by using three solvents which were deionized water (DI) phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and hexane. The efficiency of extraction was investigated by measuring the crude protein and antioxidant of the porcine placenta. It was found that there was no protein and antioxidant in fresh and dried porcine placenta extracted by hexane. However the protein was found as 0.05±0.01 and 0.04±0.01 mg of bovine serum albumin/100 mg fresh for fresh porcine placenta and 0.12±0.030 and 0.07±0.016 mg of bovine serum albumin/100 mg fresh for dried porcine placenta extracted by DI and PBS respectively. In additional the antioxidant was found as 1.13±0.03 and 1.29±0.04 mg of trolox/100 mg fresh for fresh porcine placenta and 3.37±0.02 and 3.59±0.01 mg of trolox/100 mg fresh for dried porcine placenta extracted using DI and PBS respectively.

This research objective was to apply thermoelectric module model TEC12710 as a preheater and dehumidifier for red chilies dryer. The heat side and cool side of Thermoelectric module affected by supplied electricity were used to produces the low humidity and warm air in preheater before charging to the main electric heater of dryer. Fresh red chilies were selected as a sample in the prototype testing during the use of preheater assisted main heater and using only main heater. The test results are compared with the sample dried under the natural sun drying. The experimental results show that the preheater can condense the moisture in air with the highest MER of 0.083 kgwaterh-1 at cold side of thermoelectric module and can heat the air up in 10°C of temperature with hot side of thermoelectric module. The final moisture content of sample is only 10%wb with the slightly changed in color when compared with the sample from sun drying. The using of preheater with main heater gives a higher specific moisture extraction rate lower specific energy consumption 14 MJ energy used and can dry faster than 10 h when compared with the using of only main heater.

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.