Capacity building on dimensioning, design and operation of small-scale pneumatic dryers (2 - interim report September 2018)

Abstract

The most suitable types of equipment available for drying cassava is a pneumatic dryer. State of-the-art industrial pneumatic dryers are available and are used to process cassava in many tropical countries. However, in Africa, most cassava processing centres are small enterprises and their expansion have been constrained by the lack of a small-scale pneumatic dryer. The objective of this 30-days-long trip was to build capacity on an equipment manufacturer in Ghana on how to dimension, design and install small-scale pneumatic dryers. The activities were in cooperation with the Food Research Institute (FRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and supported by Cassava: Adding Value for Africa, Phase II (CAVAII), plus the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Banana (RTB). The participants were Hormeku Engineering Works, an equipment manufacturer, and Tropical Starch Company Limited, a processing centre.