Performance of Drying Machine with Air Dehumidifying Process for Sweet Corn Seed (Zea mays saccharata)

Abstract

The number of corn production and consumption in Indonesia has increased every year. One of the activities in achieving the production target is by supplying high-quality corn seeds. The water content of harvested sweet corn was ranging from 60% to70%. In order to produce a high quality of seeds, drying should perform with a standard drying temperature for seeds which is between 38C and 43C. A performance test of a tray drying machine with an air dehumidifying process was conducted. The air dehumidifying process was conducted by an air conditioning system. Drying was carried out until the corn seeds reach 10-11% moisture content with observations every two hours. This drying machine provided lower relative humidity air drying than conventional sun-drying with a 75% relative humidity reduction from the environment. Therefore, drying with optimal temperature can be conducted faster and higher efficiency. The average dehumidified air temperature was 41.10.6C and the average relative humidity was 15.90.7% was used for drying air. It took 44 hours 25 minutes to reach 11% of sweet corn's moisture content while the sun drying process took 89 hours of drying. The seed germination could reach 85.7% by using this method which was a 1% difference from a sun-drying method which was 86.7%.