In-store Drying.

 The University of New South Wales group has few positive things to say about
the high temperature high airflow forced convection dryer that is favoured in Europe and the
United States. These systems have made it commercially feasible to dry grain in deep bins, with
low air volumes and very little supplemental heat. This dryer is used successfully in the
Australian grain industry. The UNSW group of Drs. Robert Driscoll and George Srednicki were
contracted by the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR) to present
this industry experience in Southeast Asia. Drs. Justin Tumambing at NAPHIRE, Philippines,
and KMITT in Thailand, were the initial analysts. First they had to establish the thermophysical
properties of the most common modern rice varieties in the Philippines and Thailand such as
air-moisture balances with grain-moisture (note: grain-moisture equilibrium isotherms plotted
against relative humidity). NAPHIRE and KMITT reported substantial differences between the
southeast Asian varieties and the Australian varieties. Using pilot system dryers they
determined the required airflows to dry the grain to 14% wb within a period of time. Rather than
drying grain in a certain number of hours, time was reckoned in weeks. They concluded that the
very high initial moistures of 24% wb and above require first stage drying to minimize grain loss.
This yielded the two-stage drying strategy. First the high moisture grain had to be dried with a
high temperature, high airflow forced convection system (such as the Louisiana State University
{LSU} dryer), down to 18% wb. The more stable "dried" grain can then be loaded in bulk bins
and slowly dried to 14% wb with the low airflow, low heat system.

NAPHIRE developed a carriage-mounted continuous flow recirculating silk with a batch capacity
of ½ ton, to be used as a first stage dryer. It was assumed the dryer would be towed to the field
for grain drying immediately after threshing. The 18% wb grain could then be brought in to the
processing plant for final drying. The NAPHIRE strategy backfired when the government
approved the idea and politicians endorsed the mobile flash-dryer. NAPHIRE was
commissioned to implement the programme, which resulted in the manufacture of 2,000 flash-
dryers. Units were produced by local shops funded by congressmen and later distributed to farm
cooperatives. The farmers were unprepared and eventually furious. Coops were left with 18%
wb grain with no equipment to complete the 2-step drying process. Information gathered in a
survey conducted by Irene Villapando, Philippine Department of Agriculture consultant,
indicated that NAPHIRE's dryer was not being used because of technical, economic and
financial reasons. Further investigation prompted worldwide reactions. NAPHIRE's strategic
error was to aggressively promote the first stage of a two-stage drying procedure.. It
represented the risks faced in research and development.