Abstract
Drying, as one of the oldest forms of preserving agricultural products, has evolved over the years with the development of improvised drying systems such as the flash dryer for processed agricultural products. A mini flash dryer was locally fabricated and designed and fabricated considering domestically available power sources of charcoal and cooking gas. It was evaluated using basic staple foods (cassava, cornstarch, and beans) mashes obtained from Bodija market, processed, milled, and weighed in 1 kg samples. A Data logger (ECB-DU4AWC, China) was used to measure the temperature and relative humidity of ambient air and exhaust air leaving the heat exchanger while a CO2 monitor (2CO9, China) was used to check for safety of air. Key variables were moisture content, drying time, temperature, and relative humidity while Performance indicators such as the Final moisture content (FMC), drying efficiency, and efficiency of the heat exchanger. The average capacities of the flash dryer for cassava mash, cornstarch, and bean mash were 37, 40, and 25.2 kg h-1, respectively. The average efficiencies of the flash dryer on cassava mash, cornstarch and bean mash were 81, 69 and 59 %, respectively. The cost of production of the machine was estimated to be N304,050. The developed mini multipurpose flash dryer performed well with a reasonable level of efficiency on cassava mash and corn mash. However, the machine performed well by reducing the drudgery associated with their drying operation.
Keywords
References
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Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Agricultural Engineering (Other) |
| Journal Section | Research Article |
| Authors | |
| Submission Date | January 21, 2026 |
| Acceptance Date | March 31, 2026 |
| Publication Date | April 17, 2026 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19590162 |
| IZ | https://izlik.org/JA54HD25FG |
| Published in Issue | Year 2026 Issue: 58 |
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Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, Müh.-Mim. Fakültesi, Çevre Mühendisliği Bölümü'nden mezun olmuştur. Yüksek lisans ve doktorasını ABD'nde tamamlamıştır. Uzmanlık alanı, hava kirliliği ve kontrolü üzerinedir. Özellike kalıcı organik kirleticiler (KOK'ler) üzerine araştırmalarını devam ettirmektedir. Halen Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Çevre Mühendisliği Bölümü'nde öğretim üyesidir.
Danka Bukvicki gained her master and PhD in Biology at the Faculty of Biology University of Belgrade (FBUB). She is a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Morphology and Systematics of Plants, FBUB. Postdoctoral studies in phytochemistry of liverworts and medicinal plants she accomplished at the Tokushima Bunri University (TBU), Japan, the University of Bologna(UNIBO), Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), and Chemodiversity Research Group, University of Vienna, Austria. Her research interests are applied botany, medicinal and aromatic plants, bioactivity of natural compounds, food microbiology, food technology and phytochemistry. Dr Bukvicki published more than 40 scientific publications in peer-reviewed international journals. She is a member of the editorial board of 2 international scientific journals. She is engaged as a coordinator in international research project (UNDP). Danka has supervised a few national and international master and bachelor students. She is a member of the Phytochemical Society of Asia (PCA) since 2015 and a member of the Serbian Biological Society, since 2011.
She is a specialist in the field of food drying, the application of non-thermal food processing methods, food storage and safety, and packaging. Her scientific and research interests focus mainly on engineering issues in food technology, especially the physical properties of raw materials and mainly plant products.
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