Enviro-Economic Analysis of Ginger Drying in Hybrid Active Greenhouse Solar Dryer

Abstract

AbstractThe storage of high moisture crop for longer duration is not possible because of its faster degradation due to the presence of excess moisture. The drying of crops makes them suitable for storage without getting spoiled. The hybrid active greenhouse dryers are suitable for drying such high moisture products. In this greenhouse dryer, the hot water from evacuated tube solar collector is supplied to the heat exchanger kept in the drying chamber which also acts as the drying bed for the products to be dried. In our experimentation, ginger has been dried from 92.8% (wb) to 10% (wb) moisture content in 21 h. The maximum air temperature inside the greenhouse is 55.33 °C. The economic and environmental feasibility of the dryer is tested in the paper. The dryer is capable of producing 232 kg of dried ginger annually with payback time of 1.15 years only. In its entire lifetime, the dryer will mitigate 16.41 tonnes of CO2 that prove it as a sustainable solution for drying purpose.KeywordsGreenhouseDryerSolarGingerEconomic