ABSTRACT

Drying is a critical activity in rice postharvest handling. Rice is usually harvested at grain

moisture content between 24% and 26%. Any delay in drying will result in quality and quantity

losses. Also, according to Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) types of existing dryers

in current generation, which medium rice millers are using, particularly mechanical flatbed

dryers driven by Diesel or Gasoline engines wasted too much fuel that caused large fuel

consumption and create another factor affecting the economy of designing a much effective

and efficient mechanical dryer. As the main factor being said, in collaboration with Philippine

Rice Research Institute, our study aims to design, fabricate, test and evaluate a machine that

could help farmers in the process of grain drying. A machine that is designed to dry rice grains

at moisture content of 14%. A machine that is designed to use combustible farm waste or

biomass as an alternative fuel for gasoline and diesel. And a machine that uses Stirling engine

as its main prime mover. The outcome of the study will show the variation in drying using

mechanical dryers driven by an engine, powered by combustible farm waste resulting to same

drying output of existing dryers.