Design and Optimisation of Hybrid Solar Dryers for Dehydration of Vegetables

Abstract

In India preserving food is traditionally done by the effective drying method. The heat of the sun and the air are being used for several years to dry food to preserve it. Due to depleting fossil fuels and high prices lead to the use of non-conventional energy sources. Drying of products using solar energy has gained importance as it is environmentally friendly and has little impact on the environment. Natural flexible solar dryers and mandatory solar dryers are the two main phases of drying. In natural convection solar systems, air flow is stopped by air flow caused by buoyancy while in a solar convection dryer forced air flow is supplied using an operating fan either solar / residual module or residual fuel. In this project we are trying to build a hybrid solar dryer. The hybrid solar dryer is designed and constructed using direct solar power and a temperature changer.