Design Analysis and Performance of Greenhouse Based Solar Dryer

Abstract

Solar Drying or solar dehydration is one of the important processes required for preservation of food and agriculture products. Bacterial growth and moisture is being removed in this process. It helps for preserving the food products for more long time. Solar drying is the oldest & effective method used for drying food products. The device used for preservation of food products using solar energy is called as solar dryer or solar dehydrator. The solar dryer is classified on the basis of mode of drying, circulation of air, type and arrangement of solar air collector. In this project, a solar powered indirect type food dryer is designed and developed. The dryer design is consisting of solar collector unit along with absorber made up of extended surface of aluminum sheet with staging, drying chamber with three columns of each rack shelves, chimney for exhaust air, a solar powered fan. The dryer collector and drying chamber are connected with a hose pipe clamped to both ends. The project model of solar dryer is consisting of a monitoring unit for data logging of continuous updatation of parameters like temperature inside the dryer and temperature at ambient condition, humidity at inside and outside of dryer also the atmospheric pressure, etc. At the end we are going to investigate the effectiveness of solar dryer with above parameters.