Analisis Kinerja Alat Pengering Tipe Rak (Cabinet Dryer) untuk Pengeringan Gula Semut

Abstract

Drying is important process in the producing of palm sugar. It carried out to reduce sugar moisture content in order to extend its shelf life. Nowadays, Indonesian palm sugar home industries usually use direct sun drying because of limited information of the effectiveness of mechanical dryer. This research was conducted to analyze cabinet dryer performance to dry palm sugar on various temperature and capacity. There were three different temperature and capacity used in this research. Palm sugar temperature and water content was observed every 10 minutes during drying. Dryer performance was evaluate by determining drying rate and drying efficiency. This result showed that increasing drying temperature from 60 C to 80 C increase drying rate significantly, while increasing drying capacity from 5 kg to 15 kg could not increase the drying rate in a significant value. The highest drying efficiency was 8,49% that belongs to 15 kg on capacity and under 80 C process temperature. The drying rate with cabinet dryer at temperature at least 70 C was higher than those in direct sun drying