Fluidized Bed Dryer

There is growing awareness as per the vital role of renewable energy in making various technologies available to the rural areas in order to improve their productivity and life expectancy. Almost 2 billion people lack access to reliable electricity globally (Rodrigues, et al,2016) , while in the developing world domestic energy consumption heavily depends on biomass. This practice often lead to an increased risk of acute respiratory infection and lung diseases, especially for women and young children (Birzer,2014) Among several renewable sources such as hydropower bioenergy wind energy, solar energy is a vast and underutilized resource. Solar energy has a significant role to play in reducing the carbon footprint and ensure sustainable energy

Ismail et al (2012) designed a continuous fluidized bed fryer for cassava flakes (Garri). This equipment has been noted to be useful in drying other agricultural products such as rice and maize. Also, Yahya (2016) designed and evaluated a solar assisted fluidized dryer which is integrated with biomass furnace to dry paddy rice. However, among the recent continuous fluidized solar assisted dryer, there is none has been able to achieve simultaneous cooking and drying of agricultural products. Yet, it is a requirement for some agriculture products such as cassava flakes (Garri) which need some level of cooking before the drying in other to be consumable. On this note, an innovation called a hybrid solar enhanced continuous fluidized bed is been

4) To experimentally evaluate the effect of mixed, forced and free convection on the particle drying, Heat transfer, and pressure drop.

5) To determine the effect of direct or indirect solar heating method on the drying efficiency.

Methodology

The solar thermal energy availability would be evaluated from the available solar data and the appropriate solar collecting method would be determined.

Solar enhanced fluidized bed dryer would be Designed Fabricated and installed. The fluidized bed would be designed in such a way that the orifice plate and product inlets are replaceable, so as to study the effect of different types of air distributor on the drying efficiency. The equipment would be completed with instrumentations to monitor different parameters that are of interest to the experiment. A mathematical model would be developed and validated with the experimental results.

Conclusion

It is hoped that this improved technology will extend the frontier of knowledge while making available an avoidable and sustainable technology for the farmers in rural