Study on drying characteristics of gliricidia

Abstract

At present, gliricidia is becoming a commercialized fuel and there is a tendency to grow Gliricidia as an energy plantation to cater for the increasing demand. Gliricidia is adapted to wide-ranging agro-climatic and soil conditions and can be cultivated all over Sri Lanka except in coastal areas, on mountain tops and in arid areas. Further, it was found to offer series of other complementary benefits as far as soil and environmental aspects are concerned. Gliricidia is historically grown as a boundary fence tree which does not require any special agronomic practices, care of pest control measures due to some inherited genetic characteristics typical of it. It is a leguminous tree with very high rate of nitrogen fixation. However, there are some issues related to use of gliricidia as a commercialized fuel, including high initial moisture content, poor drying characteristics and decaying during storage.