An Experimental study on multi bed drying of Copra

Abstract

Multi bed drying characteristics of copra were tested using a hybrid dryer with 3 beds arranged vertically in a drying chamber of 600 x .600 x 1350 mm. Hot air was passed through the chamber m sequential mode .from bottom bed to the top bed. Consequently, the mean bed temperatures from bottom, middle and top beds were 74°C, 65°C and 59°C, respectively. A high production rate of 2.06 kg/ rn2h could be achieved by multi bed drying. However, a significant difference was observed in final product quality of the copra dried in 3 different beds. The percentage of white and light brown copra in bottom, middle and top beds were 85.0%,93.8% and 91.3%, respectively. In average, more than 90% of copra dried in multi bed dryer could be used to produce good quality white coconut oil by mechanical expelling. Physicochemical properties indicated that mechanically expelled coconut oil from copra dried in multi bed dryer was very similar to virgin coconut oil.