Drying Performance and Aflatoxin Content of Paddy Rice Applying an Inflatable Solar Dryer in Burkina Faso
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is dedicated to evaluate the prospects and challenges of an inflatable 56 solar dryer (GrainPro SBD 50) to dry paddy rice in the Southwest region of Burkina Faso, mainly focus on the drying performance and product quality. The research is interesting and with suitable application. However, there are several issues needs to be corrected before the paper can be further considered for second review.
- The English should be improved as I encounter somegrammarerrors of the whole paper.
- The introduction section is not bad. However, the literature review should be expanded.
- The amount of paddy rice dried in the ISD was 587, 975 and 975 kg, respectively. Could you explain why this amount was chosen? For the conventional sun drying, around 80 kg of paddy rice was spread on a 2.5 x 2.2 m 87 tarpaulin with the same bulk height as the paddy rice in the ISD. So how can you ensure the heights of batch1, 2, 3 are the same as that of conventional sun drying.
- Figure 5, it is interesting and useful contour to show the inner status in ISD. Could you explain how can you obtain the thermal image of the ISD, as it is very large.
- Drying efficiency was strongly related to the weather conditions and the loading capacity [29], could you givemore explanation to it.
- Figure 7, it is understood that the bottom rice would raise up to the top after roller bar rotation, and the surface temperature would become lower correspondingly. It is very important to show how often will the roller bar work, and series images are useful.
- “To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been reported the thermalstability of AFG2 [6,31].” So what is the content of AFG2 in each case? I have not seen the description.
- Improve the conclusion section, the main results of the present study should be summarized.
- In all, the present research seems slightly like a report. It is better to revise and make it more scientific.
Author Response
General comment: The paper is dedicated to evaluate the prospects and challenges of an inflatable 56 solar dryer (GrainPro SBD 50) to dry paddy rice in the Southwest region of Burkina Faso, mainly focus on the drying performance and product quality. The research is interesting and with suitable application. However, there are several issues needs to be corrected before the paper can be further considered for second review.
Response to general comment: Thank you for your valuable comments. All issues have been addressed in the revised manuscript. All changes in the manuscript are highlighted in yellow.
Point 1: The English should be improved as I encounter some grammar errors of the whole paper.
Response 1: It has been amended. Kindly see the revised manuscript.
Point 2: The introduction section is not bad. However, the literature review should be expanded.
Response 2: The introduction section has been amended.
Point 3: The amount of paddy rice dried in the ISD was 587, 975 and 975 kg, respectively. Could you explain why this amount was chosen? For the conventional sun drying, around 80 kg of paddy rice was spread on a 2.5 x 2.2 m 87 tarpaulin with the same bulk height as the paddy rice in the ISD. So how can you ensure the heights of batch1, 2, 3 are the same as that of conventional sun drying.
Response 3: Fresh paddy rice for each batch was provided by a farmer cooperative. About 1 ton of fresh paddy rice was requested. However, the delivered amount of fresh paddy rice varied due to several unexpected issues, including labour shortage and transportation during harvest, especially in batch 1. The tarpaulin size was just an information on the drying area that was prepared for conventional sun drying. The bulk width and height were the same as the paddy rice in the ISD, while the length was adjusted proportionally.
The information has been added. Kindly see line 66 – 67, and 100 - 102.
Point 4: Figure 5, it is interesting and useful contour to show the inner status in ISD. Could you explain how can you obtain the thermal image of the ISD, as it is very large.
Response 4: The large image was obtained by good specification of our thermal camera (Testo 870-2). During capturing an image, the camera held by a hand and inserted from one of the ISD outlets. The information has been added in the manuscript. Kindly see line 122 – 123.
Point 5: Drying efficiency was strongly related to the weather conditions and the loading capacity [29], could you give more explanation to it.
Response 5: It has been amended. Kindly see line 228 – 231.
Point 6: Figure 7, it is understood that the bottom rice would raise up to the top after roller bar rotation, and the surface temperature would become lower correspondingly. It is very important to show how often will the roller bar work, and series images are useful.
Response 6: It has been amended. The mixing interval and the working principle of the roller bar have been included. Kindly see line 105 - 108. During drying experiments, taking a thermal image during mixing was kept to a minimum, since it required a large opening the zipper to insert the thermal camera. This activity considerably affected the drying process in the ISD.
Point 7: “To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been reported the thermalstability of AFG2 [6,31].” So what is the content of AFG2 in each case? I have not seen the description.
Response 7: The description has been added. Kindly see line 258 – 260 and Fig. 10.
Point 8: Improve the conclusion section, the main results of the present study should be summarized.
Response 8: The conclusion has been amended. Kindly see the revised manuscript.
Point 9: In all, the present research seems slightly like a report. It is better to revise and make it more scientific.
Response 9: It has been amended. Kindly see the revised manuscript.
Reviewer 2 Report
The submitted article entitled “Drying Performance and Aflatoxin Content of Paddy Rice Applying an Inflatable Solar Dryer in Burkina Faso” describes the method of drying paddy rice.
The manuscript is interesting but required some corrections, which you find below.
line 23 – please add info “aflatoxin type AFG2“ instead “AFG2” because using in abstract the abbreviations is not correct
line 80-81 – respectively to what?? I do not understand this sentence
line 88 – short rain? Please write how long is short rain last
line 134-138 – how many samples were placed in the bag?
Also in the text is some punctuation errors e.g. line 124, 160 - W/m2 – “2 “should be with superscript, line 183 – Rojas et al. – without coma
line 214 – “However, the final moisture content of paddy rice dried in the ISD was higher than the one dried under the sun in batch 2 and 3.” - it was the statistical higher value?
line 232 – it means that impurities depend on the quality of the plant obtained after harvesting?
line 233-241 – how long was storage material after harvesting?
fig 10 – why the only batch 1 was used to aflatoxin evaluation.
Author Response
General comment: The submitted article entitled “Drying Performance and Aflatoxin Content of Paddy Rice Applying an Inflatable Solar Dryer in Burkina Faso” describes the method of drying paddy rice. The manuscript is interesting but required some corrections, which you find below.
Response to general comment: Thank you for your valuable comments. The manuscript has been revised. All changes in the manuscript are highlighted in yellow.
Point 1: line 23 – please add info “aflatoxin type AFG2“ instead “AFG2” because using in abstract the abbreviations is not correct.
Response 1: It has been amended. Kindly see line 23 – 24.
Point 2: line 80-81 – respectively to what?? I do not understand this sentence
Response 2: The sentence has been amended. Kindly see line 84 – 85.
Point 3: line 88 – short rain? Please write how long is short rain last
Response 3: The information has been added. Kindly see line 104.
Point 4: line 134-138 – how many samples were placed in the bag?
Response 4: The information has been added. Kindly see line 128 – 129.
Point 5: Also in the text is some punctuation errors e.g. line 124, 160 - W/m2 – “2 “should be with superscript, line 183 – Rojas et al. – without coma
Response 5: It has been amended in the entire manuscript.
Point 6: line 214 – “However, the final moisture content of paddy rice dried in the ISD was higher than the one dried under the sun in batch 2 and 3.” - it was the statistical higher value?
Response 6: It has been amended. Kindly see line 225 – 227.
Point 7: line 232 – it means that impurities depend on the quality of the plant obtained after harvesting?
Response 7: Yes. The information has been added in the manuscript. Kindly see line 237 – 238.
Point 8: line 233-241 – how long was storage material after harvesting?
Response 8: The information has been added. Kindly see line 68.
Point 9: fig 10 – why the only batch 1 was used to aflatoxin evaluation.
Response 9: The paddy rice came from the plantation areas, which are directly next to each other. Kindly see line 66 – 67.
As for the HPLC analysis at the laboratory in Burkina Faso, we also experienced unexpected delays and equipment breakdown. Based on the reasons, the analysis was only done for batch 1 in three replicates. Nevertheless, further research has been planned to investigate deeper the mycotoxin contamination.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is dedicated to evaluate the prospects and challenges of an inflatable 56 solar dryer (GrainPro SBD 50) to dry paddy rice in the Southwest region of Burkina Faso, mainly focus on the drying performance and product quality. The manuscript has been revised, however, the response and revision is not completely. Some points need more explanations, especially some test images are needed.
Point 4. Figure 5, it is interesting and useful contour to show the inner status in ISD. Could you explain how can you obtain the thermal image of the ISD, as it is very large.
It is still confused how can you get the whole temperature distribution of ISD with the small Testo 870-2? How can ensure the accuracy of the temperature distribution? Some real images including the Testo 870-2 inside the ISD are needed.
Point 6. Figure 7, it is understood that the bottom rice would raise up to the top after roller bar rotation, and the surface temperature would become lower correspondingly. It is very important to show how often will the roller bar work, and series images are useful.
The roller bar direction in Figures 6 and 7 is contradicted. To the reviewer understanding, the surface temperature should be lower after rotation. So which part is after rotation, please indicate clearly in Figures 6 and 7.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
