Renewable Energy 94 (2016) 147e156

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Renewable Energy
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Experimental performance of a new design of solar dryer for drying

osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes
S. Nabnean a, S. Janjai b, *, S. Thepa a, K. Sudaprasert a, R. Songprakorp a, B.K. Bala b
a
Division of Energy Technology, School of Energy, Environment and Materials, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
b
Solar Energy Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom, 73000, Thailand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The performance of a new design of a solar dryer for drying osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes is
Received 29 September 2015 presented. The dryer consists of drying cabinet, heat exchanger, 16-m2 water type solar collector, and
Received in revised form water type heat storage unit. The cabinet size is 1.0 m wide
3.0 m long
1.4 m high with the load
24 February 2016
capacity of 100 kg for osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes. Three batches of osmotically dehydrated
Accepted 3 March 2016
Available online 23 March 2016
cherry tomatoes were dried in this dryer during MayeJune, 2014. For each batch, 100 kg of osmotically
dehydrated cherry tomatoes were dried. There was a considerable reduction in drying time in the new
solar dryer as compared to natural sun drying. The dried products were completely protected from rains
Keywords:
Cherry tomatoes
and insects and were of high quality dried products. The efficiencies of the solar collector was 21%e69%.
Solar dryer The pay-back period of the dryer is estimated to be 1.37 years.
Performance © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction dehydration pre-treatment of cherry tomatoes, they are usually

Cherry tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum var. Cerasiforme)
are a tropical fruit with high commercial value in international
markets and it is an important ingredient in daily cuisine in
Thailand. The production volume of cherry tomatoes in Thailand
was 6840 tons in 2013 [1], and it has an annual export potential of
USD 9.7 million/year.
Cherry tomatoes are consumed both as fresh and dried prod-
ucts. Also cherry tomatoes are highly perishable. The alternative
practice for preservation of cherry tomatoes are hot air-drying with
osmotic dehydration pre-treatment. The drying of cherry tomatoes
with osmotic dehydration pre-treatment is not only for the pres-
ervation purpose but also for changing their texture and taste to
increase marketing values.
Osmotic dehydration technique is a pre-treatment process
commonly used for many tropical fruits prior to hot air-drying.
According to this technique, fruits are immersing in a hypertonic
solution to remove part of the water from the fruits by the osmotic
process. As after the osmotic dehydration process, there are still
water left in the fruits, this water is further removed by hot air-
drying. For normal practice in Thailand, after the osmotic
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: serm.janjai@gmail.com (S. Janjai).
dried by natural sun drying and this method of drying has a lot of
problems, as explained below.
Sun drying exposes the commodity to solar radiation and the
convective power of the natural wind. Since the sun drying is a
relatively slow process, considerable losses can occur. Sun drying
offers a cheap method of drying but often results in inferior quality
of products due to its dependence of weather conditions and the
product dried with this method is vulnerable to the attack of insect
infestation [2]. This process has several disadvantages like spoilage
of product due to the adverse climatic condition like rain, wind,
moist, and dust and loss of material due to birds and animals. Also
the process is highly labour intensive, time consuming and requires
large area. With industrial development, artificial mechanical
drying comes into practice. However, it is highly energy intensive
and expensive, which ultimately increases product cost. Thus, solar
drying is the best alternative as a solution of all the drawbacks of
the natural sun drying and artificial mechanical drying [3e19]. In
addition, solar energy for crop drying is environmentally friendly
and economically viable in the developing countries [20,21].
Many studied have been reported on solar drying of fruits
[3e7,22e28]. Limited studies have been conducted on solar drying
of cherry tomatoes [6,29]. However, there exist some problems
associated with solar drying i.e. reliability of solar radiation during
rainy period or cloudy days and its unavailability at nighttime. In a
hybrid solar dryer, drying can be continued during off sunshine

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.03.013
0960-1481/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
148 S. Nabnean et al. / Renewable Energy 94 (2016) 147e156
hours by back-up heat energy of stored heat. Hence the product is
saved from possible deterioration by microbial infestation [30].
Variability and time-dependent characteristic of solar radiation
make storage necessary for continuous operations of food drying
[16,31]. Continuous drying also prevents microbial growth during
drying [32]. Furthermore, it has been found that storage heat and
auxiliary heat supply can be used to assess compatibility of solar
energy to meet the drying process temperature [33]. Also Thailand,
located in the tropical regions of Southeast Asia, gains annual
average daily solar radiation of 18.2 MJm2 day1 [34]. Since
Thailand gains relatively high solar radiation, the utilization of a
solar drying technology is considered to be an alternative solution
to the problem of drying osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes
in Thailand. These factors motivated us to design a hybrid dryer.
Although limited studies have been conducted on solar drying of
cherry tomatoes, no study has been reported on drying of osmot-
ically dehydrated cherry tomatoes using hybrid dryer. There exists a
research gap and literature gap on hybrid solar dryer for drying
osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes. Therefore, the objectives
of this work were to present a new solar hybrid dryer using water
type solar collector, heat exchanger and solar hot water storage
tank and to evaluate experimentally the performance of this new
design of hybrid dryer for drying osmotically dehydrated cherry
tomatoes.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Description of the solar dryer
As the colour of cherry tomatoes are sensitive to UV solar ra-
diation, the indirect type solar dryer was selected to dry them. Since
the dryer is intended to use in a tropical region of Thailand with
frequent adverse weather conditions, a thermal storage is used to
overcome the problem caused by the weather conditions. The solar
water heater with water storage tank was chosen because charge
and discharge of thermal energy of the storage tank can be done
simultaneously and fluctuation of drying air temperature can be
reduced, due to high thermal inertia of the storage tank. In addition,
the collector and the storage tank are commercially available with
reasonable price in this country.
The proposed solar dryer consists of water type solar collector,
drying cabinet, cross flow heat exchanger and heat storage unit. The
schematic view of the new solar dryer is shown in Fig. 1. Hot water
is circulated into the tubes of the cross flow heat exchanger where
heat is transferred from the hot water to the drying air. The heated
air from the heat exchanger is forced inside the cabinet dryer for
drying osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes. The heat storage
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the solar dryer.
tank is used during the time when sunshine is not sufficient (Fig. 2).
The sizing of the dryer was based on an approximate calculation
approach proposed by Janjai and Kaewprasert [35] as follows. The
dryer was intended to dry 100 kg of osmotically dehydrated cherry
tomatoes from the initial moisture content of 62% (wb) to the final
moisture content of 15% (wb). As a result, the mass of water to be
removed is 55.3 kg. The drying time is chosen to be 4 days. This is
because longer drying time often causes spoilage due to mould and
too short drying time causes case-hardening. To remove 55.3 kg of
water in 4 days, the supply of heat required can be estimated from
the latent heat of vaporization and mass of water removed. With
the long-term average of global radiation of 18.2 MJm2 day1 [34],
and the estimated average efficiency of solar collector of 0.5, the
required solar collector area was estimated to be 9 m2. As rain and
cloudy skies usually occur for the period of 6 h, water storage tank
was designed to cover the thermal energy requirement of 6 h.
Therefore the storage tank of 300 L available in local market was
chosen and the collector area of about 7 m2 was added to provide
thermal energy to store in the storage tank. This makes the total
solar collector area of 16 m2. Details of the design can be found in
Ref. [36].
2.1.1. Water type solar collector
The water solar collector consists of transparent cover, and
absorber plate. The transparent cover is a 6 mm thick clear glass
supported by 70 mm aluminium frame. Absorber plate is fixed
25 mm below the glass cover. Tubes are installed to provide a water
flow above the absorber plate. The total area of the solar collector is
16 m2. It is south facing with the slope angle of 14 , the latitude of
the location of the dryer. The collector efficiency evaluation is based
on the temperature of the water at the inlet and outlet and incident
solar radiation on the solar collector. The experiments were con-
ducted by exposing the collector panels under the solar radiation
for several days and measuring the water inlet and the outlet
temperature according to ASHRAE 93-77 standard [37].
2.1.2. Heat exchanger
The heat exchanger is needed to heat the drying air from hot
water coming out from the water type solar collector and the heat
storage water tank. The heat exchanger used in this work (Carrier,
model 42CB004) consists of tubes with hot water flowing inside the
tubes and the air flowing across outside these tubes at an angle of
90 . The coil of the tubes is made of copper and it has a face area of
0.16 m2. The fins are attached to the tubes. Each fin has the
dimension of 9.0 cm
22.5 cm
0.025 cm. The location of the cross
flow heat exchanger and the fan forcing the air is shown in Fig. 3.
Heat is transferred from the hot water flowing inside the tubes to
 S. Nabnean et al. / Renewable Energy 94 (2016) 147e156 149

Fig. 2. Pictorial view of the drying cabinet (a) and solar collector (b).

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the drying cabinet.

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of the heat exchanger.

150 S. Nabnean et al. / Renewable Energy 94 (2016) 147e156
air flowing outside across the tubes. The diagram of the heat
exchanger is shown in Fig. 4.
2.1.3. Drying cabinet
The drying cabinet is 1.0 m wide
3.0 m long
1.4 m high
equipped with 18 drying trays and these trays mounted inside the
drying cabinet, as shown in Fig 3. Fresh air enters via the air inlet
into the heat exchanger and the heated air leaves the heat
exchanger. Then the heated air from the heat exchanger is passed
over the drying material spread in the thin layers on 18 horizontally
stacked trays arranged in two vertical columns. Each tray is made of
aluminium frame and aluminium net with the dimension of
0.9 m
1.0 m. The trays are of sieve-type to allow air circulation
through the drying material. This drying cabinet is specially
designed in such a way that hot air is guided to flow horizontally
over the product placed in the trays (Fig. 3). This design has the
advantage of allowing uniform distribution of air temperature in
the cabinet. The air leaving the tray is 90% recycled.
2.1.4. Water storage tank
A vertical cylindrical hot water storage tank of 300-L in volume
is installed indoor to store thermal energy. It is made of 5 mm thick
stainless steel and insulated with 10 mm thick polyurethane foam.
Four type K thermocouples are mounted at four levels of the tank:
top, bottom and two levels with similar distance at the middle.
2.2. Experimental procedure
Queen cherry tomatoes, grown in Nakhon Pathom province,
Thailand were used as drying materials in the experiments. To
prepared osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes, cherry tomatoes
of the size of about 2.0 cm in diameter were blanched in boiling
water for about 5 min and consequently, soaked in sugar solution
(40% of sugar) for 72 h. After having been soaked in sugar solution,
osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes were obtained. These to-
matoes had initial moisture content about 59e62% (wb). They were
stored at 5  C and then left at room temperature before starting the
experiments. In this study about 100 kg of osmotically dehydrated
cherry tomatoes was dried in the solar dryer. A total of three full
scale experimental runs were conducted during the period of
MayeJune, 2014. The tomatoes were placed in the product trays in
a thin layer. The experiments were started form 8.00 am to 6.00 pm.
The drying was also continued on the subsequent days until the
desired moisture content (about 15% wb) was reached and this
moisture content corresponded to the moisture content of high
quality dried products available from local markets. About 100 g of
Fig. 5. Positions of the measurements of temperature, relative humidity and moisture content: the thermocouples (T), hygrometers (Rh) and product samples for moisture content
measurement (M).
the product was sampled at various positions. As the drying cabinet
is divided into two sections (Fig. 5), three product samples with
different levels at the middle of each section were monitored in
order to observe the uniformity of the moisture content. These
samples were weighed periodically at a 2-h intervals using a digital
balance (Kern, model 474-42, accuracy ± 1 g). Finally, the moisture
contents of the products were determined by the oven method
(103  C for 24 h, accuracy ± 0.5%).
2.3. Instrumentation
Equipment for measuring important parameters affecting the
drying processes was installed for determining the performance of
the dryer. Solar radiation was measured by a pyranometer (Kipp &
Zonen model CM 11, accuracy ± 3%) which was used to measure the
global solar radiation incident on the collector plane. Thermocou-
ples (type K) were used to measure the air temperature inside the
dryer. The thermocouples were calibrated by measuring the boiling
and freezing temperatures of water to determine the accuracy
(±2%). As the proposed dryer has a relatively large dimension and
drying air temperature is the main factor influencing the drying
kinetics of the product, several thermocouples were placed on
vertical planes at the front side, middle and rear side of the dryer
(Fig. 5) in order to monitor the homogeneity of the air temperature
distribution. The relative humidity of ambient air and drying air
were periodically measured by hygrometers (Electronik, model
EE23, accuracy ± 2%). The hygrometers were placed at the middle
and the rear side of the dryer to monitor relative humidity of air in
the dryer and air leaving the product being dried. Voltage signals
from the pyranometer, hygrometers and thermocouples were
recorded every 10 min by a multi-channel data logger (Yokogawa,
model DC100). The air speed at the inlet and outlet of the dryer
were manually recorded during the drying experiments using hot
wire anemometer (Airflow, High Wycombo, UK, model TA5; accu-
racy ± 2%). Before the installation, the pyranometer was calibrated
against a pyranometer recently calibrated by the manufacturer. The
hygrometers were calibrated using standard saturated salt
solutions.
2.4. Efficiency of solar collector
The thermal efficiency of the solar collector was calculated as
follows:
The useful energy collected by the solar collector is given in Eq.
(1) as [38]:
 S. Nabnean et al. / Renewable Energy 94 (2016) 147e156 151

Fig. 6. Variations of solar radiation during a typical experimental run for drying osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes.

Fig. 7. Comparison of the temperatures of drying air in the cabinet dryer (upper curve) with the ambient air (lower curve) for the typical experimental run (see the position of the
measurement in Fig. 5).

2.5. Measurement of quality of osmotically dehydrated cherry

tomatoes


_ p Tc;o  Tc;i
Qc ¼ mC (1)
To assess the quality of the osmotically dehydrated cherry to-
matoes, their colour before drying and after drying, and composi-
where Qc is the rate of useful energy gained from the collector, m_ is
tion analysis were conducted. The colour of osmotically dehydrated
the mass flow rate of fluid flow, Tc,i and Tc,o are, respectively, the
cherry tomatoes was measured by a chromometer (Minolta, model
inlet and outlet fluid temperature of the solar collector, and Cp is the
CR-400) in Commission Internationale l'Eclairage (CIE) chroma-
specific heat capacity of working fluid.
ticity coordinates, L* describing lightness (L* ¼ 0 for black, L* ¼ 100
Collector efficiency is defined as the ratio of useful energy
for white), a* describing intensity in red-green (a*>0 for red, a*<0
collected to solar energy input on the collector and the collector
for green) and b* describing intensity in blue-yellow (b*>0 for
efficiency is expressed in Eq. (2) as [38]:
yellow, b*<0 for blue). Out of five available colour systems, the
L*a*b* [39,40], and L*C*h [41], systems were selected because these
are the most-used systems for evaluation of the colour of dried food
,
Qc m Cp ðTc;o  Tc;i Þ materials. The instrument was standardized each time with a white
hc ¼ ¼ (2) ceramic plate. Three readings were taken at each place on the
Ac Ig A c Ig
surface of samples and then the mean values of L*, a* and b* were
where Ac is the surface area of solar collector and Ig is the global averaged. The different colour parameters were calculated using
solar radiation incident on the collector. the following equations [42].
152 S. Nabnean et al. / Renewable Energy 94 (2016) 147e156

Fig. 8. Comparison of air temperature at the inlet (upper curve) with those of the outlet (lower curve) of the dryer for the typical experimental run.

Fig. 9. Variation of ambient relative humidity and relative humidity inside the cabinet dryer with time of the day for a typical experimental run.

Hue angle (h) indicating colour combination is defined in Eq. (3) 2.6. Economic analysis
as [42]:
The total capital cost for the solar dryer (CT) is given by Eq. (6) as
[43]:

tan1 ðb*=a*Þ ðwhen a* > 0Þ
h¼ (3)
180+ þ tan1 ðb*=a*Þ ðwhen a* < 0Þ
CT ¼ Cm þ Cl (6)
Chroma (C*) indicating colour intensity or saturation is defined
in Eq. (4) as [42]: where Cm is the material cost of the dryer and C1 is the labour cost
for the construction.
The annual cost calculation method proposed by Audsley and

2 2 1=2 Wheeler [44] yields Eq. (7).
C* ¼ a* þ b* (4)
" #" #
and the total colour change (DE) is defined in Eq. (5) as [40]: X
N
 u1
Cannual ¼ CT þ Cmaint;i þCop;i ui
 (7)
i¼1
u uN  1
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2  2  2
DE ¼ L*  L*ref þ a*  a*ref þ b*  b*ref (5) where Cannual is the annual cost of the system. Cmaint,i and Cop,i are
the maintenance cost and the operating cost at the year i, respec-
tively.u is expressed by Eq. (8) as [44]:
 S. Nabnean et al. / Renewable Energy 94 (2016) 147e156 153

Fig. 10. Comparison of moisture contents for drying osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes samples from six different positions inside dryer and the control samples.

Table 1
Colour variations of osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes before drying and after drying both in the dryer and outside the dryer.

Status Colour Value

L* a* b* C* h DE
- Osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes before drying 22.23 19.12 28.22 34.09 55.88 e
- Osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes dried in the dryer 13.03 6.69 7.23 9.85 47.22 26.07
- Osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes dried with natural sun outside the dryer 21.96 15.54 19.24 24.73 51.07 9.67

Table 2
Characterization of dried osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes samples dried in Cannual
Z¼ (10)
the dryer. Mdry
Parameters Value
where Mdry is the dried product obtained from this dryer per year.
Total vitamin A (mg/100g) 13.73
Calcium (Ca) (mg/100g) 35.9 The payback period can be computed in Eq. (11) as [43,45]:
Iron (Fe) (mg/100g) 0.52
Sodium (Na) (mg/100g) 195 CT
Payback period ¼ (11)
Cholesterol (mg/100g) Not detected Mdry Pd  Mf Pf  Mf Pdh  Mdry Z
Total carbohydrate (included fibre) (g/100g) 85.93
Total dietary fibre (g/100g) 0.55
Total energy (kcal/100g) 369.24 where Mf is the amount of fresh product dried per year (kg), Pd is
Total energy from fat (kcal/100g) 19.80 the price of the dry product (USD/kg), Pf is the price of the fresh
Total fat (g/100g) 2.20 product (USD/kg) and Pdh is cost for osmotic dehydration process of
the cherry tomatoes.

3. Results and discussion

. 
u ¼ ð100 þ iin Þ 100 þ if (8)
3.1. Experimental results

where iin and if are the interest rate and the inflation rate in percent,
respectively.
The operating cost Cop consists of the electricity consumption
cost and the labour cost for operating the dryer. This cost can be
express by Eq. (9) as [43]:
Cop ¼ Celectric þClabour;op
The maintenance cost of the first year was assumed to be 1% of
the capital cost. Celectric is the cost of electricity required by the
water pump and blower and Clabour,op is labour cost for operating
the dryer.
The annual cost per unit of dried product is called the drying
cost (Z, USD/kg). It can be written in Eq. (10) as [43]:
Three experimental runs of solar drying of osmotically dehy-
drated cherry tomatoes were conducted during the period of
MayeJune, 2014 to assess the performance of this new solar dryer.
Typical results of the experimental runs are illustrated in
Figs. 6e10. During the drying experiment the values of the solar
radiation, drying air temperature and drying air relative humidity
(9) ranges were from 38 W/m2 to 915 W/m2, 30  Ce65  C and 16%e80%
respectively. The drying temperatures and relative humidity values
were significantly different from those of the ambient air during
the whole period of drying.
The variations of solar radiation are shown in Fig. 6 during a
typical experimental run of solar drying of osmotically dehydrated
cherry tomatoes in the cabinet dryer. During the drying, solar ra-
diation increased sharply from 8.00 am to noon and then it
154 S. Nabnean et al. / Renewable Energy 94 (2016) 147e156
Table 3
Cost data and economic parameters for economic evaluation.
Items
Materials cost for constructions of the dryer and solar collector
Labour cost for the construction
Repair and maintenance cost
Amount of electricity consumption
Price of electricity
Labour cost for operating the dryer
Number of labour per batch
Price of fresh cherry tomatoes
Cost for preparing osmotic dehydration of cherry tomatoes
Price of dried osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes
Expected life of the dryer
Interest rate
Inflation rate
*(1USD ¼ 32 Baht).
considerably decreased in the afternoon. There was also a slight
random fluctuation in solar radiation. However, the overall cyclic
patterns of the solar radiation were similar except the second and
forth days of this experimental run because these days were cloudy.
Fig. 7 shows the comparison of air temperature at three different
locations inside the dryer, the front (T2), the middle (T6) and the
back (T10) for the typical experimental run. The patterns of tem-
perature changes in different positions were comparable for all
locations (front, middle and back). Temperatures in different po-
sitions at these three locations varied within a narrow band. This
implies that there was a uniform distribution of air flow inside the
drying cabinet. The temperatures at each of the locations inside the
drying cabinet differed significantly from the ambient air
temperature.
From Fig. 7, it is clearly seen that the drying air temperature
during the period 14:00e18:00 h is relatively high (50e65  C), even
at 18:00 h when solar radiation is nearly zero, the drying air tem-
perature is still high (50e53  C). This is because thermal energy
stored in the storage tank was used in this period. It is also observed
that the fluctuation of drying temperature during the second and
the fourth days of the experiment is less pronounced than that of
solar radiation, mainly due to high thermal inertia of the storage
tank. For the case of solar air heater, the fluctuation of the drying air
from the air heater followed rapidly the fluctuation of solar radia-
tion [46]. These demonstrate the advantage of our dryer proposed
in this study.
Fig. 8 shows the comparison of the air temperatures at the inlet
with those of the outlet for the typical experimental run. There
were significant differences between the temperature of the air
entering and leaving the dryer for most of the periods of the day.
Fig. 9 shows relative humidity at two different locations inside
the cabinet dryer and relative humidity of the ambient temperature
during the typical experimental run. Relative humidity decreased
over time at different locations inside the dryer during the first half
of the day and it slightly increased for the other half of the day.
However, there was a significant difference in relative humidity for
locations inside the dryer which was always lower than those of the
ambient air.
Fig. 10 shows the variations in moisture content of osmotically
dehydrated cherry tomatoes samples at different positions in the
cabinet dryer for the typical experimental run compared to the
control samples dried in the open air outside the dryer. It was
observed that the moisture content of the osmotically dehydrated
cherry tomatoes dried in the dryer considerably decreased during
the first day. The moisture content of the osmotically dehydrated
cherry tomatoes in the dryer was reduced from an initial value 62%
(wb) to a final value of 15% (wb) within 4 days where as the
Costs and economic parameters
5370 USD*
2500 USD
4% of capital cost per year
2168 kWh per year
0.0896 USD per kWh
12.9 USD per person per batch
2 person
0.8 USD/kg
0.4 USD/kg
8.06 USD
15 years
7.3%
2.5%
moisture content of the sun-dried samples was reduced to 40%
(wb) within the same period. Statistical analysis shows that there is
no significant difference in the moisture content of the osmotically
dehydrated cherry tomatoes at different positions inside the cabi-
net dryer. This demonstrates the uniform moisture content of the
product in the dryer. However, there is a significant difference be-
tween the moisture content of the tomatoes dried in the dryer and
that of the sun-dried cherry tomatoes samples at a significance
level of 1%.
3.2. Qualities of dried osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes
3.2.1. Colour change
The colour of osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes was
measured and results are shown in Table 1. The values of the colour
indices indicated that the colour of osmotically dehydrated cherry
tomatoes dried in the dryer was bright reddish brown while that of
osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes dried with natural sun
outside the dryer was light yellow brown. The total colour change
(DE) of osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes dried in the dryer
was 26.07 while the total change of osmotically dehydrated cherry
tomatoes dried with natural sun was 9.67. The colour change in the
case of osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes dried in the dryer
is acceptable in the markets and to the consumers of osmotically
dehydrated cherry tomatoes.
3.2.2. Composition analysis
Table 2 shows the composition of osmotically dehydrated cherry
tomatoes samples from the solar dryer. The analysis was done by
National Food Institute of Thailand. Ingredients of dried osmotically
dehydrated cherry tomatoes were evaluated in terms of vitamin A,
calcium, iron, sodium, cholesterol, total carbohydrate, total dietary
fibre, total energy, total energy from fat and total fat. The total fat
content of the osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes sample was
2.20g/100g of the sample and no cholesterol was detected. Thus,
the composition of the osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes
dried in the dryer corresponds to that of high quality dried
osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes available in markets.
3.3. Economic evaluation
Based on the economic situation in Thailand, the costs and
economic parameters are shown in Table 3. The capacity of the
dryer is 100 kg and the capital cost for construction and installation
of the dryer is 5370 USD. The dryer is assumed to be used for 10
months for drying osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes and one
batch of drying run requires 4 days. Using these data the pay-back
 S. Nabnean et al. / Renewable Energy 94 (2016) 147e156 155

period is calculated using the method described in section 2.6. It Tc,o outlet fluid temperature of solar collector ( C)
was found that the pay-back period is 1.37 years. This demonstrates Z drying cost (USD/kg)
that the investment in this dryer is economically promising for its u parameter defined in Eq. (8)
use in Thailand. hc efficiency of solar collector (%)
Furthermore, collector efficiency in a typical sunny day was
within the range of 21%e69%. The osmotically dehydrated cherry References
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