# Estimation of the Energy Consumption of the Rice and Corn Drying Process in the Equatorial Zone
## 4 Discussion  
This study objective was to establish the diagnosis concerning the energy consumption used in current drying in small and medium-scale plants. From a technological point of view, the drying process presents options or variables that allow optimization consuming energy while maintaining the same quality of the final products. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline
**Parameters** & **Results** \\ \hline Energy source & Industrial LPG Electricity \\ The electric consumption of the plant/monthly & 5450–8800 \\ Consumption of gas of the plant/monthly & 53000–54000 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 7: Energy consumption in the corn dryer. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Dryer** & **Capacity** & **Drying Time** & **Drying per Month** & **Electricity Consumption per Month** & **Industrial LPG** & **Production** & **Indicator** \\  & **(Quintal)** & **(Hours)** & **Month** & **(Dollars)** & **(Dollars)** & **(Dollars)** & **Dollars/Quintal** \\ \hline A1 & 400 & 6 & 3 & 100 & 760 & 0.47 \\ A2 & 400 & 6 & & 286.5 & 1200 & 0.27 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 8: Production indicator (drying corn). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Dryer** & **Capacity** & **Drying Time** & **Drying per Month** & **Electricity Consumption per Month** & **Industrial LPG** & **Production per Month** & **Indicator** \\  & **(Quintal)** & **(Hours)** & **(Hours)** & **(Dollars)** & **(Dollars)** & **(Dollars)** & **Dollars/Quintal** \\ \hline A1 & 400 & 6 & 3 & 100 & 760 & 0.47 \\ A2 & 400 & 6 & & 286.5 & 1200 & 0.27 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 9: Exergetic performance of the corn dryer. The evaluation results of the energy consumption in the corn and rice dryers shows that an energy efficiency savings plan is required, starting from the redesign of the LPG consuming dryers based on the actual capacity of the equipment and also installing a thermostat and humidity regulator to control the drying time. The rice small-scale dryers consume domestic LPG as an energy source, considered to be a problem of interest to the Ecuadorian State because fuel is subsidized. Considering the variable costs of the drying process which are electricity and LPG fuel costs, it was obtained that the variable cost of drying is 1.1 a 1.9 dollars/quintal (45.45 kg). It is worth mentioning that, to obtain an integral cost of drying, information on fixed expenses such as permanent labour, the value of the drying equipment, and useful lifetime is needed [33; 41]. Very little information has been published at the bibliographic level regarding energy conservation potential in industrial drying. The importance of sustainable energy use forces the rethinking of traditional approaches where the dryer is only using LPG as energy source. In practice, most drying industries ignore energy efficiency, arguing that product quality and performance are paramount. However, an appropriate balance must be maintained between these parameters. The process of designing and improving the dryer must be continuously reviewed. Many external factors can change in the dryer's useful lifetime and therefore affect the economics of the whole company. For example, most industries consume about 25% of the total energy used in product processing, where the cost of drying can approach 60-70% of the total cost [42; 43]. Energy demand for drying processes and, in particular, for product processing increases each year as production increases [44]. This increase in energy obliges the search for technological solutions that optimize conventional energy use and that allow the transition to hybrid generation systems based on renewable energies. As discussed in the current literature, the cost-benefit analysis concerning improvements from the use of biomass as an energy source has proved to be very interesting in short recovery periods with significant savings [42; 45; 46; 47].