Design and development of desiccant seed dryer with airflow inversion and recirculation

A desiccant seed dryer has been developed to dry seed in deep bed at safe temperatures for good shelf life and germination. The dryer consists of two chambers viz., air conditioning control unit and seed drying chamber. It operates in seed drying mode and desiccant regeneration mode. It has provision for recirculation of the drying air to minimise the moisture removal from drying air. Also, it has provision of airflow inversion through deep seed bed for uniform drying. Moisture removal from drying air has been done using silica gel desiccant. Chilly 'Punjab Surakh', Chilly 'Punjab Guchhedaar', Paddy, Coriander, Fenugreek and Radish seeds was dried with hot air at 38 °C from initial moisture content of 26.9 to 5 % (wb) in 2 h, 46.52 to 4.19 % (wb) in 4.25 h, 13.3 to 2.61 % (wb) in 4 h, 13.4 to 10.08 % (wb) in 3 h, 12.4 to 8.22 % (wb) in 4¼ h and 10.6 to 6.08 % (wb) in 4 h respectively. The statistical analysis based on paired t-test showed that seed drying in this dryer has no adverse effect on seed germination.