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Solar Drier DST Paper Pub
Solar Drier DST Paper Pub
P-ISSN: 2349–8528
E-ISSN: 2321–4902
IJCS 2018; 6(6): 2057-2065 Development and evaluation of thermally efficient
© 2018 IJCS
Received: 04-09-2018 solar drier with temperature controller system
Accepted: 08-10-2018
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International Journal of Chemical Studies
The forced convection solar drier is considered to be efficient, heater and second crop dryer rock bed storage system.
reliable, faster and can dry large quantity of crop products as Chauhan et al. [43] studied the drying characteristics of
compared to natural convection solar drier [17, 18]. Efficient and coriander with rock bed storage unit. Kamble et al. [44] studied
low cost solar dryers have been developed by number of drying of chilli using solar cabinet dryer coupled with gravel
scientists [19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30] for the drying of bed heat storage system. A solar air heater with long term heat
agriculture products. Some of the researchers have tried to storage system using Granular carbon was studied by Saxena
introduced new modifications such as Ezeike [31] has used et al. [45]. Farid et al. [46] constructed a latent heat storage
dehumidification chamber containing silica gel, fans powered module consisting of 45 cylindrical capsules fixed made of
by solar photovoltaic panel were used in indirect solar drier copper tubes. Fatah [47] developed a solar air heater with
[32, 33]
, Hossain et al. [34] have used aluminum reflector to copper tubes filled with thermal energy storage material. Fath
increase the efficiency of solar collector and Șevik [35] has [48]
and Enibe [49] have designed solar air heater with
used double pass solar air heater with fins for the drying of corrugated set of tubes filled with a phase change material
carrot. (paraffin wax) as a thermal energy storage material. Singh et
The thermal storage system has been used by number of al. [50] have used thermocole for insulation, whereas,
researchers to increase the efficiency of solar air heaters and Mursalim et al. [51] used saw dust for insulation. Mohanraj and
to provide heat after sunset for continuous drying. Bolaji [36] Chandrashekhar [52] have developed an indirect forced
investigated an indirect solar dryer using a box type absorber convection drier with heat storage system (Gravel) for chilli
collector with opaque crop bin, and a chimney to provide drying in Pollachi, India.
thermal storage. Ehiem et al. [37] designed and developed an Above discussed literature revealed that solar drier with
industrial fruit and vegetable dryer with thermal storage temperature control has not been developed elsewhere which
system. Bolaji et al. [38] used absorber mesh screen placed can work throughout the year and various seasonal crops
midway between the glass cover and the black absorber plate could be dried. In the present study, indirect solar drier has
for effective air heating. Saravanakumar et al [39] have been designed and fabricated having temperature controller to
developed a solar collector integrated with a FP-SAH with control the temperature during drying of crops and thermal
heat storage unit and revealed that a mixture of gravels with storage system to provide heat after sun set and fans at inlet of
iron scrap found to be better storage materials. Ayyappan et al solar air heater to increase efficiency of solar drier. The
[40]
have integrated a natural convection solar tunnel dryer quality parameters of dried products have been presented.
with sand as heat storage material. Jain [41] presented a solar
crop dryer having reversed absorber plate type collector and 2. Design and material
thermal storage with natural flow. Tiwari et al. [42] have Indirect solar drier consists of two parts. One is solar air
introduced two storage systems, one is crop dryer cum water heater and second is drying chamber.
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Solar air heater is consisting of wooden board and ply of size kept at the latitude of the place 30.86° N to receive maximum
5’ x 3’ covered with 4 mm hick glass to receive solar solar radiation throughout the year.
radiation (Fig 1). The area of solar air heater is 152 x 91.44
cm2 having thickness of 20.32 cm. A thermal storage system Temperature Controller
which is mixture of iron scrap and gravels has been provided The temperature controller provide with the solar drier has
at the bottom covered with aluminum sheet to increase the been discussed in this section. This Circuit was build around
efficiency of solar air heater. It will also radiate the heat after Arduino Uno Board. Arduino Uno is the Heart of the Circuit
sunset stored during day time. Insulation of thermocole has as all the functions of the circuit is controlled by the Arduino.
been provided at the bottom of solar air heater to reduce heat LM35 is a precision integrated circuit whose output is linearly
loss. Two fans have been fixed at the inlet of solar air heater proportional to Celsius temperature. Its range is of -550C +
south side of the drier to reduce the humidity of air entering 1550C. It has +10.0Mv/Celsius linear scale-factor.
into the solar air heater. Provision of bulbs has been kept for Temperature Sensor Senses the temperature and converts it
lighting up during bad weather. Two DC fans have been fixed into an analog signal. Which is directly fed to the Arduino
at the south side of air collector to introduce dry air at the UNO R3 board through an analog to digital converter and this
inlet of solar air heater for increasing its efficiency. The is the main input to the controller board the speed of the fan
wheels have been provided at the base of the stand to move and the value of the temperature is shown on the LCD board.
manually in the direction of the sun to receive maximum solar The microcontroller unit on the Arduino drives the motor
radiation particularly during early morning and late evening. driver to control the speed of the fan. Fan Speed Control: A
Drying chamber is consisting of wooden board to keep the low frequency pulse width modulation (PWM) signal which is
products to be dried having 40 kg capacity having dimension ranging around 30Hz. And the duty cycle of this signal varied
of 91.44 x 76.2 sqcm (Fig 2). It has three trays fixed with to adjust the speed of the fan a transistor is used as a switch
channels to move the tray in or out. Two fans have been fixed which is BD139. The temperature suitable to particular crop
at the top of drying chamber north side of the drier i.e. the out i.e. the optimum temperature is fixed with coding. When
let for moisture removal. The slop of solar air heater has been temperature inside the drier reached to that point then fan
automatically runs, resulting reduction in temperature.
with three different modes of drying (a) solar drier and (b) η =ML /I Ac
cabinet drier and (c) open sun. The pomegranate arils were
pretreated by steam blanching for 30 seconds followed by Where
sulphuring @ 0.3% sulphur powder for 60 min in sulphur is drying efficiency
fumigation chamber. Whereas, oyster mushrooms were M = Mass of moisture evaporated per sec (Kg/s)
pretreated with 10 g citric acid/kg for 10 min. and red chilies L = Latent heat of evaporation of water (kJ/Kg)
were pretreated with 2% NaCl for 10 min. The detail of I = solar radiation (W/m2)
different treatment combinations are as under: Ac = Collector area (m2)
P1/D1/R1= Open sun without any treatment (control)
P2/D2/R2= Open sun with treatment 3.3 Carbon reduction
P3/D3/R3= Solar drier with treatment The carbon reduced during drying of crops in comparison to
P4/D4/R4= Solar drier without treatment cabinet drier has been estimated using following formula
P5/D5/R5= Cabinet drier with treatment C = power of cabinet drier x number of hour /1000 x 0.87
P6/D6/R6= Cabinet drier without treatment (kg)
The weight of the samples was recorded periodically to find 3.4 Drying cost
out the drying rate. The temperature variation in the three The cost of drying has been calculated on the basis of current
modes of drying was recorded on hourly basis with market prices of raw material, nominal processing charges,
temperature and humidity sensors. The moisture content of depreciation on machinery and reasonable profit margins.
products was recorded using automatic moisture balance. The
water activity of dried products was observed using water 4. Results and Discussion
activity meter. The temperature in the cabinet drier was kept 4.1 Quality parameters of dried products
at 500C and t was intermediate drying from 10AM to 5 PM. The quality parameters of three products (pomegranate,
Oyster mushroom and red chilli) have been presented in table
3.2 Drying efficiency 1.
The drying efficiency of solar drier has been calculated using
formula
Pomegranate arils (anardana) (12.22 %) acid content was recorded in cabinet dried treated
In pomegranate (Table 1) the highest (14.13 %) moisture arils (P5). The lowest (3.33) pH was recorded in solar dried
content was recorded in the open sun dried untreated samples untreated sample (P4) whereas; the highest (4.02) was
(P1) whereas, the lowest (10.23 %) was recorded in the recorded in cabinet dried treated arils (P5). The TSS content
cabinet dried treated samples (P5) which was at par with the was recorded highest (37.72 oB) in solar dried untreated arils
untreated cabinet dried samples (10.31 %). Consequently the (P4) which was at par with solar dried treated arils (37.30 oB)
highest (0.533) and lowest (0.420) water activity was whereas, the lowest (30.98oB) TSS was recorded in cabinet
recorded in the same samples. The acid content was recorded dried treated arils (P5). The highest reducing (17.73 %) and
highest (13.51 %) in solar dried untreated sample (P4) which total sugars (18.98 %) content was recorded in untreated solar
was at par with the solar dried treated samples. The lowest
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dried pomegranate (P4) whereas, the lowest (13.86 and 15.06 also revealed that drying rate was faster in solar drier during
%) was recorded in cabinet dried untreated arils (P6). first day and after that it become constant.
Oyster mushroom
The highest (9.62 %) moisture content was recorded (Table 1)
in the open sun dried treated samples (D2) whereas, the lowest
(8.19 %) was recorded in the cabinet dried untreated samples
(D6) which was followed by treatment D5 (8.20 %), D3 (8.29
%) and D4 (8.86 %). The highest (0.420) and lowest (0.388)
water activity was recorded in the treatments D2 (open sun
dried treated samples) and D3 (solar dried treated samples),
respectively. The acid content was recorded highest (7.79 %) (a)
in cabinet dried untreated sample (D6) which was at par with
the cabinet dried treated samples (D5). The lowest (6.01 %)
acid content was recorded in open sun dried untreated arils
(D1). The lowest (3.71) pH was recorded in cabinet dried
untreated sample (D6) whereas; the highest (4.56) was
recorded in solar dried treated arils (D3). The significantly
highest (18.50 oB) TSS content was recorded in solar dried
untreated sample (D4) and the lowest (15.20 oB) TSS was (b)
recorded in control samples (D1). The highest reducing (10.56
%) and total sugars (13.87 %) content were recorded in
untreated (D4) and treated (D3) solar dried oyster mushroom,
respectively. The lowest reducing and total sugars (7.89 %
and 9.55 %) content was recorded in open sun dried arils
without any treatment (D1).
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(a)
Oyster mushroom
In dried oyster mushroom (Fig. 8 b) the highest appearance
(7.80) scores were obtained in solar and cabinet dried treated
mushrooms (P3 and P5). The highest texture scores (8.30)
were obtained in solar dried treated samples (P3) which was
closely followed by cabinet dried treated mushrooms (P5).
The highest overall acceptability scores (8.10) were obtained
in solar dried treated samples (P3) which was closely followed
by solar dried untreated (P4), cabinet dried treated (P5) and (c)
untreated samples (P6). Fig 8: Sensory evaluation of (a) dried pomegranate arils, (b) red
chilli and (c) oyster mushroom
Red chilli
In dried red chilli (Fig. 8 c) the highest appearance (7.80) and 4.5 Drying efficiency
texture (8.00) scores were obtained in solar and cabinet dried The drying efficiency of the dried products has been
treated samples (R3 and R5). The highest overall acceptability presented in table 2. The table revealed that drying efficiency
scores (8.00) were obtained in solar dried treated samples (R3) of solar drier was in the range of 15% to 21.76%.
which was closely followed by cabinet dried treated samples .
(R5). Similar results for sensory quality attributes were Table 2: Drying efficiency of solar drier
reported by Sharma et al. [53].
Crops Drying efficiency (%)
Pomegranate 16.19
oyster mushroom 21.76
Red Chilly 15.09
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