Konsumsi Energi dan Biaya Pokok Pengeringan Sistem Pengering Efek Rumah Kaca (ERK)-Hibrid dan In-Store Dryer (ISD) Terintegrasi untuk Jagung Pipilan

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study the possibility of the system integration of the greenhouse effect solar-assisted dryer and the in-store dryer and to analyse the the energy consumption and the drying cost of the system. In this system the drying process is performed in two stages i.e. the Greenhouse effect solar-assisted dryer dries the grain to a certain moisture content between 20% and 16% which is then followed by the in-storage drying process to a moisture content below 13%. By using this method it is expected that the energy consumption can be reduced while the quality of grains is still maintained. In addition, this system utilizes the renewable energy which is expected to be more economical in the becoming years as well as to support the energy diversification and conservation efforts. The performance test was performed in two testing. The result showed that as much as 1294.1 and 1114.1 kg of shelled corn can be dried by this integrated system with drying time 8 hours in the first stage and 38 and 36 hours in the second stage from moisture content of 22.3 and 23.6% to a moisture content below 13%. The specific energy consumption of the integrated system was 5.98 and 7.96 MJ/kg water evaporated which was lower than the use of merely the solar-assisted (ERK-hibrid) i.e. 8.02 and 10.20 MJ/kg water evaporated. The drying cost of the system was still relatively expensive, i.e. Rp. 199.35 per kg. This drying cost consisted of fixed cost i.e. Rp. 123.16 and variable cost i.e. Rp. 76.19 per kg. The highest contribution of the variable cost was the labor cost which reached 61%. The drying cost can be reduced by perform the drying in the highest capacity or performing scaling-up of the system.