Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Solar Dryer for Drying Food Products
Abstract
The drying of various food products such as ginger, potato, tomato and bread is very much necessary to preserve in a hygienic way. Solar dryer is an alternative and effective method of quick process of drying food products. In the present investigation, an efficient hybrid type solar dryer has been developed for use during day and night. The main objective is to develop an efficient hybrid solar dryer by reducing different heat losses through use of corrugated absorbing plate and transparent glass plate and by increasing turbulence by using baffle in between the glass plate and absorbing plate. The parameters such as temperature, relative humidity and velocity of air at different point of dryer are measured by using different measuring instruments. The instantaneous efficiency of solar collector and overall loss coefficient are calculated as 48.73% and 2.11 W/m2oC considering Bhubaneswar latitude (20.2961oN, 85.8245oE).The maximum coefficient of performance is calculated as 0.789 by taking maximum outlet collector temperature and maximum drying chamber temperature. The model can be made more efficient by further reduction in heat loss using different materials of absorbing plates and different turbulence techniques.
