DESIGN AND MODIFICATION OF SOLAR DRYER

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

"Drying is an excellent way to preserve food and solar food dryers are an appropriate food preservation technology for a sustainable world." Actually, solar food drying is one of the oldest agricultural techniques related to food preservation, but every year, millions of dollars worth of gross national product is lost through spoilage. There is plenty of extra sunshine available to dry food and vegetables. On clean day approximately 800 Watts of solar energy are available for use per square meter area of earth surface. Typical operating conditions for solar dryer will vary depending upon weather. Selection of dryer for particular application depends upon the countries situated in tropical and subtropical region. Solar energy has been used throughout the world to dry food products. Such is the diversity of solar dryers that commonly solar-dried products include grains, fruits, vegetables etc. Many of these fruits and vegetables contain large quantity of initial moisture content and are therefore highly susceptible to rapid quality degradation, even to the extent of spoilage, if not kept in thermally controlled storage facilities. Mechanized drying is faster than open-air drying, requires less space and usually gives a better quality product. But the equipment is expensive and requires substantial quantities of fuel or electricity to operate. Many food industries dealing with commercial products employ state-of-the-art drying equipment such as freeze dryers, spray dryers, drum dryers and steam dryers. The prices of such dryers are significantly high and only commercial companies generating substantial revenues can afford them. Thus, in this paper, we introduced such solar dryer system which is reliable, require less space and affordable by small-scale firm and farmer to produce high quality product.

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