Abstract
Solar energy has become a viable alternative energy because it is a clean type of energy that converts solar radiation into heat energy for various applications such as heating water, power generation, cooking, and food drying. The solar dryer, integrated with the heat energy storage system, uses nitrate salt as a heat storage medium which was designed and tested by drying 1000 grams of red pepper at 19.6 to 62.4°C. The average ambient temperature ranged from 19.3 to 37.4°C, and the maximum temperature of the heat storage media ranged from 87.8 to 125°C. The solar drying process was compared to open sun drying system loaded with 1000 grams of red pepper. The findings showed that the solar dryer maintained color and flavor and lowered the original moisture content from 86% to 10% for 24 hours compared to 36 hours of drying in open air. In this study, nitrate salt is shown to be the perfect heat storage medium for drying food products; it preserved heat for about 4 hours when there is no active sunlight.
Highlights
Solar energy transforms solar radiation into heat energy to dry food and plants [1]
[8] investigated indirect forced convection solar dryer integrated with SHSM and PCM; the scrap of iron combined with gravel and the engine oil in the solar air collector was used as SHSM and the rt-42 paraffin was used as a PCM
The findings showed that the dried one in the solar dryer was better preserved without losing nutrients, color, and flavor compared to the ones dried in the open sun
Summary
Solar energy transforms solar radiation into heat energy to dry food and plants [1]. In many nations, agricultural products, vegetables and fruits, are lost for over 40% of postharvest through spoilage [2]. It is inevitable that solar dryers are used for dry agricultural products, as discussed in [3]. The common drying systems are open sun and controlled solar dryer. The controlled drying system involves the use of active and passive solar dryers as described in [5]. The active solar dryer is an efficient solar dryer used in small firms for drying products for a brief time period, but the technology is still expensive for farmers as discussed in [6]. Many recent studies investigate solar dryers that integrated with heat storage systems using different techniques. Reference [9] studied mixed-mode forced convection solar dryer and assessed thermal photovoltaic air in the air collector and drying room.
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