# Estimation of the Energy Consumption of the Rice and Corn Drying Process in the Equatorial Zone
## 3 Results
### Rice Processing Plant
#### 3.1.3 Energy Valuation
Analysing Table 4, for first category rice plants when using rice husk as heat source, the main source of consumption is the electricity used to operate the extractor motors (1 to 5 HP) and bands. Moreover, the Table 4 analyses the amount of biomass dryer energy consumption, as a production indicator per equipment operating cycle. Table 5 shows the estimated production indicator; for a better understanding of the analysis, it has been considered to present the categories by letters; letter A for dryers in first category plants (elevator dryers), letter B for dryers in second category plants,  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Parameter**} & **First Category** & **Quantity** & **Second Category** & **Quantity** & **Third Category** & **Quantity** \\  & **2 Processes** & **13 Processes** & & **12 Processes** & **11** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**Electricity**} & & 1700-3000 & \multirow{4}{*}{4} & 1000-2000 & \multirow{4}{*}{8} \\  & & kW/month & & kWh/month & & kWh/month \\ \cline{3-5}  & & 3750–6000 & \multirow{4}{*}{9} & 2000-3500 & \multirow{4}{*}{4} \\ plant \({}^{**}\)/month & & kW/month & & kWh/month & \\ \cline{3-5}  & \multirow{2}{*}{900–51500} & \multirow{2}{*}{8200–5360} & \multirow{2}{*}{4} & \multirow{2}{*}{840-580} & \multirow{2}{*}{8} \\  & & kW/month & & kWh/month & \\ \cline{3-5}  & & kW/month & & kWh/month & \\ \cline{3-5}  & & kW/month & & kWh/month & \\ \cline{3-5}  & \multirow{2}{*}{9900–51500} & \multirow{2}{*}{8400–5700} & \multirow{2}{*}{9} & \multirow{2}{*}{880–5150} & \multirow{2}{*}{4} \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**Gas**} & & \multirow{4}{*}{(kg) a tank without a consumption meter} & \multirow{4}{*}{11} & 45–90 kg & \multirow{2}{*}{11} \\  & & & consumption meter & & Domestic LPG & \\ \cline{3-5}  & & & & & Domestic LPG & \\ \cline{3-5}  & & & & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{} \\ \cline{3-5}  & & & & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{} \\ \cline{3-5}  & & & & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{} \\ \cline{3-5}  & & & & & Industrial LPG & \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**Assumptions**} & \multirow{4}{*}{1583.3 kg/h–2375 kg/h} & \multirow{4}{*}{1} & 97–227 kg/h & \multirow{4}{*}{2} & \multirow{4}{*}{3} \\  & & & kW/month & & & \\ \cline{3-5}  & & & kW/month & & & \\ \cline{3-5}  & & kW/month & & & \\ \cline{3-5}  & & kW/month & & & \\ \cline{3-5}  & & kW/month & & & \\ \cline{3-5}  & & & kW/month & & & \\ \cline{3-5}  
and letter C for third category plants. The information is presented in quintals (45.45 kg) which is the measurement that the product is commercialized. As shown in Table 5, the production indicator for drying a rice is more efficient in higher capacity biomass dryers; it is noticeable that small dryers using domestic LPG have a very low production indicator; on the other hand, the drying time can take 30 h for drying the rice, starting from the initial humidity of 21-28% to reach 10-11% of final humidity. For this analysis, two dryers have been selected. The first uses a biomass heat source, and the second LPG has capacities of 240 quintals (10,909.0 kg) and 500 quintals (22,723.3 kg), respectively. The calculation starts by defining the water total evaporation rate in the product V\({}_{\rm T}\) (kgwater/h) [1][34; 35]  
\[{\rm V_{T}=W_{0}+(X_{\rm wb1}-X_{\rm wb2})/(1-x_{\rm wb2})/t} \tag{1}\]  
where: Wo is the initial weight of solid wet in kg; \(X_{\rm wb1}\) is the initial product moisture; \(X_{\rm wb2}\) final product moisture and t drying time in hours. Performance is determined by the relationship between the minimum kg required to evaporate water from a given mass of grains and the amount of kcal consumed [36]. \[{\rm Performance=(V_{T}*C_{L})/(M_{fuel}*LCV)} \tag{2}\]  
Being, C\({}_{L}\); latent heat of vaporization of the water 540 kcal/kg. \(M_{\rm fuel}\); fuel mass use in kg/h. LCV; lower calorific value in kcal/kg, being 11,082 kcal/kg for LPG [35; 36], rice husk 3577 kcal/kg-k/kg [37].