Abstract

Grain processing should meet standard quality harvests. This is due to an inappropriate drying process. Rice millers and rice farmers in Indonesia are currently doing the process of drying rice directly under the sun. Based on the National Standard Body (BSN), the grain water content should be 14% to keep the grain at high quality. The purpose of this research is to know the effect of variation of mass of rice grain and air velocity to drying time. Rice used in this study contains an initial moisture content of 22% ± 0.5%. Rice is dried by putting it into the drying chamber and varying the air velocity and the mass of the rice. Air velocity used is 4 m / s, 5 m / s, 6 m / s and rice mass variation 1 kg 2 kg and 3 kg. The results show that the increase in air velocity decreases the drying time. On the other hand, as the paddy mass increases, the drying time increases. The air velocity and the mass of rice yielding the fastest drying time is 6 m / s and 2 kg. The time required to reach a water content of 13.6% is 30 minutes. At air velocity of 4 m / s, and 1 kg, 2 kg, and 3 kg paddy mass, to get 13.4%, 13.5% and 13.4% water content, the drying time takes 50 minutes.

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