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Thermal performance evaluation of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying


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Journal of Postharvest Technology
2022, 10(3): 137-149
www.jpht.in

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Thermal performance evaluation of solar


tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying amla
candy
Rajendra Patil*, Dinesh Suryawanshi, Yogesh Kulkarni, Sagar Pardeshi

Department of Mechanical Engineering, SNJB’s KBJ College of Engineering, Chandwad, India

Received: 21.05.2022 Accepted: 12.07.2022

ABSTRACT
Adequate and sophisticated postharvest processing method plays a significant role in minimizing the losses of harvested vegetables and
fruits. The amla is a seasonable fruit and has a storage life of only 3-4 days after harvesting due to high moisture content. Hence, there is a
need to preserve the amla fruit through controlled drying for a non-seasonal requirement. In this study, a forced convective solar tunnel
greenhouse dryer is proposed for the dehydration of amla candy. The thermodynamic concert of the dryer and behaviour of drying air was
investigated in terms of various performance indicators by the first law of thermodynamics. During experimentation, the dryer efficiency was
estimated at 3-21%, whereas the pickup efficiency was found at 20-63%. It was observed that the amla candy samples satisfactorily dried in
the range of 38-600C drying air temperature and 18-31% relative humidity, at 2-4m/s of drying air velocity. The specific moisture extraction
ratio and heat utilization factor varied between 0.04 -0.30 kg/kWh & 0.18-0.70, respectively. Results indicate that the energy exploitation and
energy utilization ratio decreased along drying time. The thermal analysis revealed that the dryer took only 35 hours to dry amla candy,
whereas 48 hours were needed for open sun drying. The effect of thickness and pretreatment on amla candy was also examined. The quality
of dried amla candy was found to be excellent in colour, appearance & taste than open sun drying. It is hoped that this study may be valuable
in reducing postharvest loss of amla fruit.

Keywords: Amla, dryer efficiency, energy utilization ratio, greenhouse

Citation: Patil, R., Suryawanshi, D., Kulkarni, Y., and Pardeshi, S. 2022. Thermal performance evaluation of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for
drying amla candy. Journal of Postharvest Technology, 10(3): 137-149.

INTRODUCTION

The Indian gooseberry (Amla) is a seasonal fruit from ancient times due to its medical properties. It is a Vrishya herb and has
a confirmatory consequence on the tissues of the human being, which helps to build, repair, and sustain the human body.
Amla (Emblica Officinalis) is a nice-looking, spherical shape; yellow with a rich source of vitamin C (10 grams of amla gives
400-600 mg of vitamin). Generally, amla cannot be consumed freely due to its abnormal flavor, from pungent sweet to bitter.
The availability of amla fruit is only for 3-4 months, and the storage life after harvesting is only 3-4 days due to high moisture
content (70-80% w.b.). Hence it is necessary to process it so that amla products are available throughout the calendar day. In
connection to this, different methods like freezing, drying, soaking with salt, oil, and spices have been applied competently to

* For correspondence: R. Patil (Email: rcp_296@rediffmail.com) ISSN: 2348-4330


Patil et al. (Thermal performance of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying amla candy)

keep away from a bazaar glut in the peak yield. However, few academicians and researchers studied the effect of different
dehydration methods like freeze-drying, osmo-air, hot air-oven and open sun drying on the quality of amla powder. The result
showed that the freeze, hot air oven drying, mechanized and osmo-air drying techniques are faster and needs high energy
costs than open sun and solar drying methods (Patil and Gawande, 2018). Also, higher initial costs and intermittent availability
of electricity in the rural sector limit the above techniques in developing countries. Hence the use of a solar dryer is the
appropriate solution in the above situation. In developing nations, open sun drying is the established technique for preserving
amla candy. However, the quality of the dried product was not consistent due to uncontrolled drying, overheating, poor colour
& taste, contamination of the product with dust, rain, birds and long drying time. Drying involves the complex process of
extracting the water from the commodity to a specific value by using solar energy. In other words, solar drying is used to
preserve perishable commodities by removing moisture content. Solar drying is a technical method and works on principle of
greenhouse effect (Patil and Gawande, 2018). According to the mode of heat transferred, solar dryers are broadly classified
as direct and indirect type solar dryers. In the first type, collection of solar energy and drying of commodity takes place in an
enclosed insulated structure whereas in later type solar energy was collected in solar collector and hot airflow through the
drying chamber. A comprehensive review on the solar tunnel (Patil and Gawande, 2016a) and cabinet dryer (Lingayat and
Chandramohan, 2021) has been presented to understand key features, findings and benefits. Yadav et al. (2021) evaluated
the performance of solar greenhouse dryer for drying bitter gourd and found that the moisture removal rate was higher in
greenhouse dryer compared open sun drying.

Several investigations have been presented on drying a few medicinal commodities. The drying characteristic of coriander
leaves was examined in convective solar dryer. The result showed that the moisture content of coriander leaves was reduced
from 88% to 5% (w.b.) in 7.5 hrs with thermal efficiency of 8-34% (Panwar, 2014). An indirect solar dryer was investigated for
evaluation of drying behaviour of curry leaves. The result showed that only 3.5 hrs was required to dry leaves from moisture
content of 67% to 5% (w.b.) with pickup efficiency of 5-23 % (Selvaraj et al., 2017). Benzaoui, and Boukadoum (2011), tested
indirect forced convection solar dryer for drying mint based on energy and exergy analysis in Algeria. Bhardwaj et al. (2019)
investigated indirect solar dryer for drying of Valeriana Jatamansi herb under active mode and found a better results interms of
drying time and efficiency. However, many academicians and researchers have investigated the performance of indirect solar
cabinet & direct type of Hohenheim solar tunnel dryer for different agricultural vegetables and fruits. A family sized solar
cabinet dryer (SCD) was evaluated for its efficacy during drying of cassava roots and showed better quality than open sun
drying (Eze, 2010). Fudholi et al. (2014) studied the performance of solar dryer for drying of red seaweed based on energy
and exergy parameters. The comparative investigation of two SCD of same dimensions for drying of tomatoes in natural and
forced convection mode was studied. Result shows that the performance of SCD under active mode was better than passive
mode (Patil and Gawande, 2016b).Ayyappan, and Mayilsamy, (2012), presented the performance of solar tunnel dryer (STD)
for drying of copra with and without heat storage material (rock bed) whereas Patil, and Gawande, (2016c) investigated
Hohenheim STD for drying of tomatoes using thermal bricks as a heat storage material and showed improvement in thermal
efficiency by 3-5%. The drying kinetics of tomato slices in solar greenhouse dryer was also investigated by using six thin layer
mathematical models (Patil and Kulkarni, 2022). They investigated that the drying models plays significant role in
understanding the drying kinetics of commodities. Kesavan et al. (2018) tested an indirect solar dyer for drying of potato slices
under active mode. They investigated the performance interms of pickup, drying and exergy efficiency. Ayyappan et al. (2021)
studied the drying behaviour of coconut in STD based on first and second law of thermodynamics. The results were also
compared with traditional open sun drying method. Pendre et al. (2021) investigated the effect of drying air temperature and
thickness of okra vegetable and found that during drying both parameters greatly affect the various quality parameters The
connection between relative humidity and energy consumption during drying of carrot cubes was explored(Yu et al.,2020).
From the available literature, it is observed that very little attention has been given to drying medicinal fruit-Amla and its by-

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Patil et al. (Thermal performance of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying amla candy)

products. Therefore to diminish the drawbacks of conventional open sun drying and enhance the worth of dried commodity,
the author has proposed a simplified version of the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying amla candy. In order to estimate
the energy interactions and thermodynamic behaviour of drying air all through the proposed dryer, the energy analysis has
been presented.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Details of proposed solar dryer

The improved version of the forced convection solar greenhouse dryer with two tunnels connected in series having aperture
area 4 m2 is shown in Fig.1. Each tunnel contains four trays; two at upper layer and remaining two at lower level. For a
maximum solar energy collection, a toughened glass of 4mm thickness inclined at 400 with horizontal was used. The ambient
air comes from the bottom of the first tunnel and then forcefully flows throughout the next tunnel via a little rectangular hole
between two tunnels. During movement, hot air absorbs the water from the commodity to be dried. Two (12V DC; 4.5 W) fans
operated by 20W PV cell were installed at the outlet of the second tunnel for adequate circulation of hot air and removal of
humid air. For effortless loading and unloading of drying product, sliding doors on the backside of every tunnel was provided. A
projected solar dryer has subsequent constructive development compare with the solar cabinet and Hohenheim tunnel dryer:

Fig. 1. Schematic view of proposed solar tunnel greenhouse dryer (STGD

The loading pace of drying material can be altered effortlessly owing to the addition or removal of tunnels in series. The tilt of
400 to the dryer ensures minimum glazing material (toughened glass) and increases the loading capacity of the dryer. Several
trays in each layer of each tunnel ensure proper solar energy utilization and maintain a drying temperature of 50-700C. This

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Patil et al. (Thermal performance of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying amla candy)

temperature range is most appropriate for drying the different commodities. The PV cell controls the drying air temperature by
adjusting the airflow rate inside the dryer and eliminating the overheating of the product.

To eliminate the issues associated with traditional materials like mild steel and wood, the proposed solar dryer has been built
with composite aluminium sections and sheets. This reduces the number of joints and the dryer's weight by almost 30%, which
further minimizes hot air leakage.

Instrumentation used

PT100 thermocouples (accuracy ±0.5 0C) were used to record the temperatures of drying air at different positions of every
dryer tunnel. The intensity of solar insolation was recorded by a digital solar meter (accuracy ±10%). The anemometer was
used to measure the wind velocity and velocity of hot air flowing through the dryer. The relative humidity of surrounding and
humid air was measured by a digital hygrometer (accuracy ±10%). A digital weighing balance (accuracy ±0.01g) having a
maximum capacity of 5kg was used for moisture content measurement of the commodity. A 16 Sunpro channel data logger
has been used to record drying air temperatures at every interval of ten minutes.

Methods

The experimental investigation on the proposed solar dryer has been carried out at the Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Chandwad, India (latitude of 20.300N & longitude of 74.250E). Initially, fresh amla fruits were purchased and
washed to remove dust particles. The amla is then blanched at 750C for 2 minutes to protect colour and enzyme's inactivation.
Afterwards, hot water blanching was done for 5 minutes for deseeding and cut into small pieces (10-15 mm). Later on, amla
segments were pretreated with KMS (Potassium Metabisulphate) solution (2-3 gram/litre of water) for 3 minutes for producing
a high-class product. Finally, pre-treated amla pieces were put into a mixture of dried ginger powder, cumin and sugar solution
for one day for proper soaking of sugar into it. Now pr-treated amla is ready for the drying process. The proposed solar dryer
focused on the sun and tested for no-load conditions to attain steady-state conditions. Finally, pre-treated amla loaded equally
on all trays of the tunnels and drying is continued till the amla candy was firm to touch but not hard. The weight of dried amla
determines the final moisture content present in it.

Performance evaluation

The drying process needs a considerable amount of solar energy for drying the product. Hence it is necessary to examine the
energy exchange and thermodynamic concert of drying air flowing through the dryer. The drying of any commodity involves
the movement of water from interior of the material to its exterior and then to the surrounding air. The rate of moisture
movement depends on the type of material, i.e. hygroscopic and non-hygroscopic. In most of the drying processes, the heat
comes from the air itself, which is cooled by the evaporation and estimated as (Yu et al., 2020; Lingayat and Chandramohan,
2021):

Latent heat for evaporation = Heat given up by the air

m w h fg = m a C Pa (DT) (1)

Where, latent heat can be estimated using following relation (Kesavan et al., 2018):

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Patil et al. (Thermal performance of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying amla candy)

h fg = 4186 ´ [597 - (0.56TP )] in J/kg (2) Where TP is the

commodity/product temperature

The quantity of water to be extracted from the commodity is estimated by following expression (Patil and Gawande 2017; Patil
and Gawande 2022):

é (M - M f ) ù
Mw = MP ´ ê i ú (3) Where Mp =Initial mass of
ë 100 - M f û
product (kg)

Once the mass of water removed from the product has been estimated, the expected drying rate, in kg/h can be determined
according to the following equation (Patil and Gawande 2017; Patil and Gawande 2022):

æM ö
(m) dr = DR = çç w ÷÷ (4)
è td ø

The solar drying process is a steady flow process involving heating, humidification and cooling processes. For a thin layer of
drying, the conservation of mass, moisture and energy can be expressed as (Panwar, 2014; Patil and Gawande, 2017):

Conservation of Mass, Moisture:

. .
Drying air: å (mair )in =å (mair )out (5)

. . .
Moisture: å (mair ´ w)in + (m)mp =å (mair ´ w)out (6)

Conservation of Energy:

Energy: å (Energy)in = å (Energy)out (7)

Where (mair)in and (mair)out illustrates mass of drying air at inlet and outlet in kg/s;(m)mp is mass of moisture of product in kg/s; w
is humidity ratio in kg of w.v/kg of d.a.

General equation of energy conservation may be written as (Kesavan et al., 2018):

. é V2 ù . é V2 ù
q - w = å (mair ) out ´ êh o + o ú - å (mair )in ´ êh i + i ú
ë 2 û ë 2 û
(8)

Where hi & ho represents heat content in drying air at entry and exit of dryer in kJ/kg; Vi & Vo is velocity of drying air flowing at
entry and exit of solar dryer in m/s, q & w are net heat and work transfer rate.

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Patil et al. (Thermal performance of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying amla candy)

The thermal performance of solar dryers can be expressed in terms of specific energy consumption and various parameters
like drying efficiency, energy efficiency & pickup efficiency.

Thermal/Energy Efficiency:

Thermal or energy efficiency predicts the heat energy needed to evaporate water particle from the commodity expressed as
(Patil and Gawande, 2016b, 2016c):

Useful energy from the process Energy for evaporation


hthermal = = ´ 100 in %
Useful energy to the process Total energy supplied (9)

The solar energy input to drying system is given by (Panwar 2014; Patil and Gawande 2016b):

Qinput = A ap ´ I b in W (10)

Where Aap is the aperture area of solar dryer and Ib is the intensity of solar radiation

The quantity of energy needed for drying is calculated by (Kesavan et al., 2018):

Q useful = m air ´ (h f - h i ) ´ t d = m air ´ C Pair ´ (Td - Tambient ) ´ t d (11)

The enthalpy of humid air at temperature Tdb can be calculated as (Fudholi et al., 2014; Kesavan et al., 2018):

h = 1.007 ´ w(251 + 1.55 ´ Tdb ) (12)

The useful heat energy gain by the drying air can be estimated as (Panwar 2014, Bhardwaj et al., 2019):

Quseful = mair ´ CPair ´ (Tdo - Tdi ) in kJ (13)

The amount air needed for effective drying depends on the wind sped and collector/drying chamber dimensions and calculated
as (Kesavan et al., 2018):

Vair = wind speed ´ width ´ height m 3 /s


(14)
\ M air = rair ´ Vair kg/s

The effectiveness of the drying system depends on how energy has been utilized in removing moisture from the product. The
moisture content plays a significant role in deciding the quality and market value of the dried product. The moisture content on
a wet basis (w.b.) is the ratio of the weight of moisture present in a dried product to the weight of moisture present in a
fresh/undried product (Patil and Gawande, 2017):

W0 - Wd
M wb = (15)
W0

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Where Wo & Wd illustrates weight of moisture present in fresh/undried and dried product respectively

However, during experimentation, the instant moisture content at time, t can be estimated by expression (Patil and Gawande
2017):

é (1 - M 0 wb ) ´ W0 ù
M twb = 1 - ê ú (16)
ë Wt û

Where Mo & Mt represents initial moisture content and moisture content of product for a specified time; Wt illustrates the weight
of commodity at time, t.

The mass of water evaporated may be determined as (Patil and Gawande 2017):

m v = Mi - M f
Initial weight ´ (Initial moisture content - Final moisture content )
mv =
(100 - Final moisture content ) (17)

Dryer/System Efficiency:

The dryer effectiveness illustrates the overall concert of the dryer, considering the collector and drying chamber. It indicates
how efficiently solar energy has been utilized in drying the food commodity and expressed as (Panwar 2014; Fudholi et al.,
2014):

m P ´ C PP ´ DTP + m w ´ h fg m w ´ h fg
hdryer = = ´ 100 in %
QS + other form of energy input I ´ A ap + Pfan
(18)

Pick-up Efficiency:

It illustrates the effectiveness of hot drying air to absorb moisture from the drying product. In other words, pick-up efficiency
estimates the evaporation rate of water from the commodity kept in the drying chamber. It is the ratio of the actual capacity of
drying air to the maximum possible capability of drying air to soak up moisture and expressed as (Panwar 2014; Patil and
ho - hi W
Gawande, 2016b): hpickup = = ´ 100 in % (19)
h as - h i r ´ V ´ t ´ (h as - h i )

Where hi & ho represents absolute humidity of air at inlet and outlet of drying chamber; has is absolute humidity of the air at
entry of the dryer at the point of adiabatic saturation.

Specific Moisture Extraction Rate:

It indicates the quantity of moisture vaporized per unit energy utilization and measured in kg/kWh. It measures the
effectiveness of drying and is expressed as (Kesavan et al., 2018):

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Patil et al. (Thermal performance of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying amla candy)

Mw
SMER = (20)
Total energy consumption

Specific Energy Consumption:

It is the inverse of specific moisture extraction rate and calculated as (Kesavan et al., 2018):

1 Q + other form of energy input


SCE = = S in kWh/kg
SMER mw (21)

Energy Utilization Ratio:

EUR is a significant term to examine the energy exploitation in the drying process, and its value was estimated as (Patil and
Gawande 2016b; Kesavan et al., 2018):

ma ´ CPa ´ (Tda - Tdo )


EUR = (22)
Energy Input

Heat Utilization Factor

HUF is purely a function of dry bulb temperature (DBT) of incoming and outgoing drying air and illustrates whether the
particular solar dryer can heat the drying air adequately or not. It is estimated as (Patil and Gawande, 2016b; Kesavan et al.,
2018):

T1 - T2 Tda - Tdo
HUF = = (23)
T1 - Ta Tda - Ta

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The simultaneous experimentation on proposed solar tunnel greenhouse dryer and open sun drying had been performed for
drying of amla candy.

Drying conditions of the solar dryer

Fig. 2 illustrates the deviation of ambient, greenhouse and outgoing air with drying time. In the morning, above temperatures
start to go up, reaches a maximum value at noon and later goes down in the evening. The variation in temperature of ambient,
greenhouse and drying air leaving the dryer has been found in the range of 27-360C, 40-600C & 37-490C, respectively. This
indicates that the temperature attained by the drying air is adequate for extracting the excess water from the commodity. The
solar intensity affects the relative humidity and ambient temperature of the air. The intensity of solar radiation increases with
the start of the day attains maximum values in the afternoon and then goes down.

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Fig. 2. Variation of ambient, greenhouse and outgoing drying air against drying time

Fig. 3. Variation of moisture content (% w.b.) in STGD & open sun drying against drying time

Variation of moisture/water content during drying time

Fig. 3 shows the deviation of moisture content with respect to the drying time. The water content of amla candy was decreased
from 81% (w.b.) to 24% (w.b.) within five days, whereas the moisture content of open sun drying samples reduced to 37%
(w.b.) at the same time. It is observed that, initially the moisture extraction rate was more and subsequently diminishes as
drying time increases. This is due to fact that, initially the moisture available on the product surface was extracted and after
that the heat in drying air was utilized to move the moister from the interior to surface of product. From the above results, it is
obvious that the entire drying course occurs in the falling rate period, and moisture content diminishes continuously with
increasing drying time.

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Dryer and pickup efficiency

Fig. 4 illustrates the deviation of dryer and pickup efficiency for a total period of drying for amla candy. The average dryer
efficiency was around 11% on the first day of drying and went down in succeeding days. The higher values of dryer efficiency
during the first hours/days of drying were due to effectual utilization of useful energy and more extraction of moisture from the
product. The exponential relationship between drying efficiency and drying time has been observed. The thermal efficiency of
open sun drying was lower due to low extraction of moisture initially and then more evaporation during intermediate period of
drying compared to greenhouse dryer. The pickup efficiency also shows the same trends as that of dryer efficiency. It was
observed that the average pickup efficiency was around 46% on the first day and decreased to 32% on fifth day. The results
proved that the capacity of drying air in vaporization of water from the commodity is adequate.

Fig. 4. Variation of dryer & pickup efficiency against drying time

SMER, SEC, EUR and HUF

Table 1 shows the average values of SMER, SEC & EUR for drying of amla candy. The SMER illustrates the effectiveness of
drying process while the SEC indicates the quantity of requisite energy per kg of water from dried commodities. The value of
SMER & SEC in the process of drying of amla candy was ranged from 0.013-0.27 kg/kWh & 3-77 kWh/kg, respectively.

Table 1. Experimental results for drying of amla candy in dryer

SMER SEC
Day EUR % HUF
kg/kWh kWh/kg

Day 1 0.174 6.31 12.82 0.424


Day 2 0.121 9.67 21.37 0.51

Day 3 0.123 10.31 17.9 0.44

Day 4 0.07 16.7 8.15 0.39

Day 5 0.042 48.41 13.21 0.53

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EUR for drying of amla candy was estimated using “Eq. (22)” and its average values were tabulated in Table 1. From
experimentation it is proved that EUR depends on the drying air temperature, velocity and structure of the commodity. The
evaporation of water from the commodity increases as drying air temperature increases however due to the hard outer skin of
amla candy, the moisture removal rate becomes slower than other commodities and thus EUR varies from 8-21%. As drying
progresses from day 1 to day 5, the EUR decreases due to continuous reduction in water content of amla candy. In addition,
the PV cell controls the mass flow rate of drying air due to variation in intensity of solar radiation. This demonstrates the major
impact on the temperature and velocity of drying air and thus on energy consumption.

From experimentation, the average HUF was estimated in the range of 0.40-0.50 for the consecutive drying days of amla
candy. This shows that the proposed dryer is capable to heat drying air adequately and it is suitable for drying of several
commodities.

Effect of thickness on drying

To study the effect of thickness of product on drying rate, the amla candy of thickness 10mm, 12mm, 15mm and 20 mm was
loaded separately in trays of dryer. The study revealed that the drying rate is greatly influenced by the thickness of the product.
As the thickness of product increases, the rate of moisture removal decreases thus increases the drying time. From
experimentations, it is observed that amla candy of thickness 10-12 mm dries faster than 15-20 mm.

Quality of dried product

The quality of selected agro-products was assessed based on colour and appearance. The colour, as well as appearance,
indicates good market worth for dried products. Amla candy looks pale yellowish and shining before drying. The quality of amla
candy after drying in tunnel greenhouse dryer is better than open sun drying method and observed brown in colour (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Dried Amla Candy in A. Open sun & B. STGD

CONCLUSION

In this study, the drying kinetics of amla candy was investigated in the proposed solar tunnel greenhouse dryer and open sun
drying method. The moisture content of amla candy in STGD was reduced from 80% (w.b.) to 25% (w.b.) within 35 hrs, while

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Patil et al. (Thermal performance of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer for drying amla candy)

open sun drying takes 42 hrs for the same moisture removal. In STGD, drying commodities exposed to solar radiations and
heated air boosts the moisture extraction rate. During the drying process, amla candy’s hard outside skin affects the drying
rate due to hefty variation between energy supplied and energy utilized. The HUF and temperature difference of 3-150C
between ambient and outgoing air demonstrate that the drying air heated by the proposed dryer is practical to increase its
capability in favor of absorbing moisture. The SMER, SEC, EUR, dryer efficiency and pickup efficiency are in line with theory.
The quality of solar-dried amla candy is far superior and could fetch around 20% extra price than open sun drying. From the
above conversation, a new proposed design of tunnel greenhouse dryer is an excellent choice for the customer. This design is
exceptional for mass production, has outstanding transportability, effortlessness tracking and assembling at the spot is easy
and can be truly a DIY (Do It Yourself) kit. Therefore, the commercial application looks to be feasible.

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