LOW COST PORTABLE SOLAR DRYER

FOR DOMESTIC APPLICATION

GOKUL RAJ A
Introduction

• Food processing increases the shelf life and nutritional content per unit
volume

• The most economic and simpler food processing technique is dehydration.

• open sun drying is cheap but unhygienic, unreliable, time consuming and
greatly affected by climatic conditions.

• Currently available dryers employ either electricity or fossil fuels and

designed for industrial applications only.
Objective
To provide cost effective and reliable solar dryer for house hold use

Novelty / Newness / Uniqueness

• Designed to harvest more thermal energy from solar radiation
• Natural air filter for filtering inlet air.
• Reduced air flow to achieve high temperatures
• The skeleton of the solar dryer is made from scrap / waste materials which
is available at low cost

Most common existing dryers for food processing

• Conventional fuel based dryers
• Electrical heater based dryers
• Solar tunnel dryers
• Small tent dryers
• Normal greenhouse dryers
Advantages
• Easy and safe to handle
• No fuel cost and pollution free
• No electricity charges (works on solar PV)
• Portable and cost effective
• Manpower required only for loading and unloading
• No manpower required for operating the dryer
• Rural people can process their food materials at their houses without any
operating cost

Cost:
Aluminium frames will be used for making the solar dryer skeleton which
will be taken from scrap yard. Currently Aluminium scrap costs Rs.100 per
kg. The rest of the components can be purchased at very low price.
 Block Diagram

Sun rays (Light Hot air out

component)

SPV DC fan Sun rays (Heat

panels component)

Solar dryer

Inlet air filter

Cold air in

We have designed a portable type simple solar dryer for house hold use
 Dryer design

Top view, front view, side view of the solar dryer with dimensions

Front view Left side view

Top view
Isometric view of the solar dryer
 Solar dryer design in wire frame mode

Polycarbonate
DC Fans
sheet

Mesh trays
Door

Aluminium
frame

Inlet air filter cabinet

Scope
• Most of the people have started using processed food item. Instead of using the
commercially available heater based solar dryer we could use solar energy based drying as
the energy is freely available.

• In future the demand for the solar dryers will increase and it would be helpful for people
to process their food items themselves at their houses.

Dryer Overview
• Greenhouse type (Polycarbonate sheet – for greenhouse effect)

• Dryer skeleton made of waste / scrap material

• Inlet air filter cabinet with natural air filtering material

• 9 W PV panel and two DC fans of 3 W capacity each

• Forced convection model with air flow control

• Designed for high solar thermal energy input

• Portable and cost effective

Method of operation

• The entire dryer set-up have to be placed under sun.

• The mesh trays are loaded with fresh food products.
• Close the door properly and check for any air leakage.
• Plug the PV module to the DC fans.
• Based on the intensity of solar radiation the DC fans starts to rotate.
• The fans are positioned for upward drafting of air.
• The air enters through the inlet cabinet where natural air filtering material
is placed.
• The filtered air then passes through the mesh trays (stainlesss steel mesh)
and absorbs the moisture from the food materials.
• The air then flows out through the DC fans.
• The trays should be shifted at regular intervals for uniform drying.
• Check the status of drying periodically.
• Follow hygienic practices like wearing gloves, head cover, proper cleaning
etc.

Application

• Rural population.
 Some dried samples
BITTER GOURD

Before Drying After Drying

TOMATO

Before Drying After Drying

Average Solar radiation data in India