Experimental Tests on a Solar Dryer of Indirect Exposure Used to Produce Dried Bananas

Abstract

This paper presents the results obtained in the process of drying bananas using solar energy, in order to spread the culture of renewable energy and to promote sustainable development. The use of solar energy is important because of its characteristics of being clean and widely available throughout Brazil, mainly in the Northeastern part of Brazil. Developing equipments using solar energy as an energy source in the Northeastern region of Brazil contributes to promote social-economic growth, thereby reducing social inequalities in the region. Among the various types of fruits produced in Brazil, we chose bananas because of its large domestic production, and its economic and nutrition contribution. Bananas have great postharvest losses, since it is extremely perishable. The study aims to change fresh bananas in dried bananas, which has high added value. The solar drying of banana with the use of indirect radiation dryers turns to be a viable alternative to small, medium and large bananas producers. We present data obtained from experiments on drying bananas through the solar dryer developed in UFCG. The experiments showed statistical significance, and the used empirical model proved to be reliable and representative because of the high values of the correlation coefficients that approached 0.99. In this work, we also present the constructive and operational characteristics of the equipment under development.