Mardelia Nur Fatana

21030116140167
C

Chapter 1
1. What is the problem that needs to be solved in this paper?
We do know that natural rubber, especially in sheets form is a crucial thing in
our life which is used in many industrial factories like automotive tires and
parts. Before going to the industrial process, rubber sheets have to be dried
first for preservation. There are two common forms of rubber sheets, which
are the un-smoked sheet (USS) and ribbed smoked sheet (RSS). The USS are
the air dried rubber sheets which have final moisture around 3% db before
selling to traders or RSS factories. Higher moisture content may lead lead to
growth of fungi on their surface. Therefore, it requires RSS factories to rewash
the sheets before the smoke drying. However, it will require an extra drying
time to produce a lower moisture content rubber sheet. In these days, people
tend to use a conventional smokehouse used firewood combustion. But, of
course there is a range of health effects from its process : Eye and respiratory
tract can be irritated to serious disorders such as breathing problems,
bronchitis, increased severity asthma. Not to mention that the residual
substance from combustion itself can lead to cancer and premature death.
Apart from health effects, uniformity of temperature and hot air circulation
inside the smokehouses can deteriorate rubber sheet surface and definitely
cause a price fall.
2. What have other researchers done to try to solve this problem?
In order to minimize the effects mentioned above, many researchers go using
renewable energy sources such as solar energy. Instead using sole biomass or
open sun drying technique, solar-assisted smokehouse for the drying of
natural rubber was designed. Drying of 320 kg of rubber sheets took place till
final moisture content of 0.5% (db) wa reached in 5 days. Furthermore, the
consumption of firewood was considerably reduced as compared with
conventional one.
3. Why havent they solved it? Or why is their solution not good enough?
Unfortunately, the factors that determine the success of drying process itself
hasnt been well optimized, especially from the design which actually
influences the temperature, velocity and air distribution inside the dryer
chamber. Those are major factors responsible for the uniform and efficient
drying of rubber sheets.

4. What is the solution in this paper or what new information have you found?
How is it different from previous solutions?
Considering the importance of dryer design, the author of this paper decide
to optimize the design and operating parameters of dryer. Then, the author
proposed a new dryer machine which combined the key of renewable energy
sources : solar and biomass. Various types of solar-biomass hybrid dryers
have been designed and developed for fruits and vegetable. The main
research is how to fabricate an efficient solar energy collection system, better
air circulation in drying chamber and use of appropriate biomass as
supplementary option whenever required. Doing that, the author use
appropriate computer simulation called Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
CFD modelling of single-component and multi-component flow was used to
simulate the temperature, air velocity and relative humidity at various
locations

inside

rubber

sheet

drying

chamber.

The

simulation

and

experimental results are compared and analyzed.

5. How exactly and under what condition is your solution better than other
proposed methods?
It can be seen from the simulation that has been done. 100 rubber sheets are
loaded. The solar energy was used for direct heating of inside air and rubber
sheets during day time, while biomass was burnt to maintain the temperature
inside drying chamber during off shine hours. The result is that the moisture
content reduce from 34.26% (db) to 3% (db) in 36 hr and became stagnant at
0.34% (db) after 48 hr compared with previously developed solar dryers for
rubber drying which able to reduce moisture content to 0.5-2.0% in 7-10 days
because the flow was natural. Besides, the predicted values are in harmony
with the observed values in complete drying period.
6. Even if your solution was not totally successful, what exact knowledge has it
contributed to the field, and what are the implications of this research for
your field?
If this solution was not exactly successful, at least we do know that by
combining 2 or more renewable energy sources, it would be a better method,
which is actually eco-friendly. Furthermore, computational fluid dynamic
technique can be used to simulate the temperature and air flow distribution
in an innovative design of drying chamber and it is proven nearly accurate
with the experiment.
7. What other knowledge is lacking concerning this research problem and
should be studied in future research?
Even the solar-biomass hybrid dryer has given an expected result, still there
is a few thing that need to be developed. For example, in the first day of
simulation, the temperature inside dryer chamber was lower due to cloudy
weather condition after 12 hr as well as the effect of higher moisture content

of rubber sheets. In fact, temperature has direct influence to the quality of

rubber sheets. Thus, it is important to us to develop a further technique
which at least could overcome the unpredicted problem such as weather.
Second, the uncontrollable heat from biomass burning in night needs to be
analyzed the root cause of it and how to make it more controllable. The third
is about the simulation. Apparently, simulation results slightly over-estimate
the temperature during the whole experiment due to the assumption of CFD
modeling that neglects the presence of moisture transport. Hopefully, in the
future, it could be well calculated again to a better and more precise result.