Design, Building and Performance Evaluation of a Mixed-Mode Solar Dryer for Agricultural Products

Abstract

This research work presents the detailed explanation of the design, construction and performance evaluation of mixed-mode solar agricultural products dryer. The experimental set up used for testing the performance of the mixed-mode solar agricultural products dryer and determining the influence of various drying methods on the drying behaviour of agricultural products. Evaluation of the dryer was centered on the moisture content reduction, temperatures and relative humidities variations. 1680 g of freshly potato slides were used for evaluation. The test results gave that the temperatures inside the dryer cabinet and the solar collector were much higher than the ambient temperature during most hours of the daylight. The temperature inside the solar collector was up to 27 o C approximately higher than the ambient temperature. The temperature inside the drying cabinet was up to 22 o C approximately higher than the ambient temperature for about three hours immediately after 12.00 h (noon). The relative humidity in the solar collector and drying cabinet were lower than the ambient air relative humidity, with the ambient air recording the highest relative humidity at each reading followed by the drying cabinet and finally by the solar collector. Because of the decreased relative humidity inside the dryer, all the time, the temperature inside the dryer was high which is sufficient enough to dry the potato at an early time. Based on the results obtained during the test, temperature above 65 o C was recorded inside the drying cabinet. This high temperature in the drying cabinet causes 419 g of moisture to be removed on the first day, 257 g on the second day, 191 g on the third day, 136 g on the fourth day and finally 108 g on the fifth day. At the end of the five days of drying process, the mass of 1680 g of potato was reduced to 569 g. Total amount of moisture removed was 1111 g and total moisture loss was 66.1 %, which is the required amount of moisture to be removed for safe drying of freshly potato slides. The moisture content of the freshly potato slides was 24.9 % at the end of drying for the first day at about 5:00 pm, 20.4 % at the end of drying for the second day, 19 % at the end of drying for the third day, 16.7 % at the end of drying for the fourth day and finally 15.9% at the end of drying for the fifth day. It was observed that the drying rate increased from the end of one day to another, which shows the earlier and faster removal of moisture from the dried item.