# Estimation of the Energy Consumption of the Rice and Corn Drying Process in the Equatorial Zone
## 3 Results
### Corn Processing Plants  
Corn is one of the most important cereal crops in Ecuador and the world due to its high productivity, chemical composition, and nutritional value. On the other hand, it is considered that the waste generated during harvest and post-harvest could be used as a source of thermal energy. Among the main causes as to why this biomass source has not been used until now are different technical difficulties and lack of sufficient information on the waste quantity and processing [38; 39]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Dryer**} & **Capacity** & **Operalty** & **\multirow{2}{*}{**W\({}_{0}\) (kg)**} & **t (h)** & **X\({}_{\rm wb1}\) (\%)** & **X\({}_{\rm wb2}\)(\%)** & **C\({}_{L}\)** & **M\({}_{\rm fuel}\)** & **LCV** & **Performance\%** \\  & **(Quintal)** & & & & & & & **kgal/kg** & **kgal/kg** & **kgal/kg** \\ \hline Biomass & 240 & 10,909 & 14 & 23 & 11 & 540 & 155.4 & 3577 & 10 \\ \hline GLP & 500 & 22,727.3 & 12 & 21 & 11 & 540 & 32.2 & 11,082 & 32.2 \\ \hline Biomass & 600 & 27,273.7 & 12 & 21 & 11 & 540 & 567 & 3577 & 6.8 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: Exergetic performance of the dryers. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Dryer**} & **Capacity** & **Drying** & **Electricity** & **LPG per** & **Diesel per** & **Rice** & **Ash** & **Production** \\  & **(Quintal)** & **Hours** & **per Month** & **(Dollars)** & **Month** & **Husk** & **(kg)** & **Indicator** \\  & **(Dollars)** & **(Dollars)** & **(Dollars)** & **(Dollars)** & **kg/h** & **kg/h** & **(Dollars/Quintal)** \\ \hline A1 & 600 & 12 & 450 & — & 60 & 568 & 39.8 & 0.59 \\ A2 & 2400 & 12 & 750 & — & 100 & 1818.2 & 127 & 1.4 \\ B1 & 100 & 14 & 80 & 200 & — & — & — & 0.18 \\ B2 & 240 & 14 & 339 & — & 99 & 155.4 & & 0.27 \\ B3 & 500 & 12 & — & 1500 & 250 & — & — & 0.14 \\ C1 & 20 & 16 & 20 & 192 & — & — & — & 0.05 \\ C2 & 20 & 30 & — & 144 & 51 & — & — & 0.05 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Production indicator. [PERSON] indicates in the book \"Exploitation of Biomass for Energy Use\" that dispersed biomass makes obtaining the final product more expensive; for this reason, collection, transport, and storage should be considered [40]. Yellow corn is usually dried naturally (sun-dried) or using artificial dryers. The difference between both processes is the grain brightness and drying time. The product has a brighter and yellow appearance when naturally dried; on the other hand, artificial drying gives an opaque appearance and colour to the product, which affects its sale. The corn drying technology is the same for all corn collection centres, consisting of; a circular/rectangular drying chamber, a gas burner, and an extractor. It is varying the dimensions of the chamber of this equipment from the capacity of the dryer. Figure 14 shows the drying technology used in the sector, and Figure 15 shows the temperature values recorded in the drying chamber as an example. As you can see, the temperature is not uniform in the chamber, varying between 32 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 76 \({}^{\circ}\)C in certain parts. Figure 14: Corn dryers: (**a**) circular chamber; (**b**) square camera; (**c**) burner and exhaust fan; (**d**) four nozzle burner. Figure 15: Chamber temperature. The capacity of 400 quintals (18,200 kg). Table 7 shows the results of the energy consumption assessment in 14 corn dryers (6 processing plants). On Table 7, the corn dryers of the medium production collection centres are evaluated. Small producers sun dry yellow corn; the use of technology is not profitable due to the fuel and electricity consumption required by current drying equipment. Compared to the rice processing plants' case, this sector also has the same problem in the extractor underdimensioning, consuming more than what is required in the electrical part, consuming around 2000 to 4000 kWh/month.