Abstract—A tray dryer using source of energy from biomass and solar was developed to dry sorghum crackers. In this dryer, solar dryer was combined with a heating system of drying air through pipes above the furnace while cooking sorghum stem’s juice. This research investigated drying characteristics of sorghum crackers using the dryer in various drying air velocities. This drying air velocity was conducted at 0.0176; 0.0194 and 0.0272m³/s. The higher drying air velocity blown into the dryer through pipes above the furnace, the lower temperature of drying air. There is a little different of drying air and crackers temperature in each tray. Sorghum crackers were dried from 186.78% d.b. to approximately 13.88% d.b. The mechanism of drying consists of constant rate period and falling rate period. The constant value during constant rate period in each drying air velocity was 0.0109; 0.0102 and 0.0098%/s while during falling rate period velocity was 0.0085; 0.0089 and 0.0085%/s. The drying air velocity affected constant value during constant period significantly. These models were valid to predict moisture content during drying and describe the drying process in the dryer.
 

Index Terms—drying characteristic, sorghum crackers, tray dryer, drying air, velocity

Cite: Devi Yuni Susanti, Joko Nugroho Wahyu Karyadi, and Siti Mariyam, "Drying Characteristics of Crackers from Sorghum Using Tray Dryer in Different Drying Air Velocities," Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 258-264, December 2016. Doi: 10.18178/joaat.3.4.258-264