International Journal of Agricultural

Science and Research (IJASR)

ISSN(P): 2250-0057; ISSN(E): 2321-0087
Vol. 6, Issue 3, Jun 2016, 31-38
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

DEVELOPMENT OF GREEN HOUSE SOLAR TUNNEL

DRYER FOR DRYING OF GREEN CHILLIES
S. PREETHI VARDHINI1 & S. SHANMUGASUNDARAM2
1
2

Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT
In India, open sun drying is one of the most common way to dry and preserve agricultural products.
Agricultural products are spread on ground and sun dried. During drying, products are not protected against dust and
rain, rodents, birds and insects. This results in poor quality products due to contamination, high loss caused by uneven
dehydration. Thus greenhouse tunnel dryer is developed. Design specifications and field performance of greenhouse solar
tunnel dryer for drying 50 kg green chilies. A tunnel like framed structural covered with UV-stabilized polycarbonate
sheet , hemispherical type solar tunnel dryer was designed, developed and performed at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
with exposed area of 4.71m2 for drying green chilies, having an initial moisture content of 85% dry basis and to get a

chillies was evaluated through no-load and full-load conditions tests in November and December month. The dryer
developed can be used in semi urban and rural areas for drying various agricultural crops for small scale industries
which reduce cost.
KEYWORDS: Green House, Solar Tunnel Dryer, Green chillies, Solar Energy

Original Article

desired moisture content of 8-10% dry basis within two days. The performance of solar tunnel dryer for drying green

Received: Mar 17, 2016; Accepted: Apr 07, 2016; Published: Apr 12, 2016; Paper Id.: IJASRJUN201605

INTRODUCTION
In India agriculture is a major source of employment, income for farming community people. Agriculture
offers great opportunities to develop economic growth for country. There is a seasonal wastage and seasonal
shortage of agricultural products which causes fluctuation in market price of agricultural commodities. This
situation causes post-harvest losses and poor profit to farmers. Very few post-harvest technologies exist and they
are unaffordable to farmers. In order to avoid these circumstances some modification is required in agricultural
processing system and application of sustainable energy technologies.
Solar drying is low cost alternative technology for farmers to increase shelf life of agricultural products.
Drying helps in reducing excessive supply during peak season, maintaining reasonable price level and benefit to
farmers. If drying process is not completed growth of microorganisms occurs as a result of the high relative
humidity. This leads to deterioration of the quality of the product. Traditionally, food products are dried spreading
in thin layer in open sun. Though this method is economical and simple, it has disadvantages - no control rate of
drying, non-uniform drying and chances of deterioration due to exposure of products against rain, dust, storm,
birds, rodents, insects and pests resulting in poor quality of dried products. Whereas, solar drying system leads to
faster rate of drying and exposure of products against rain, dust, storm, birds, rodents, insects and pests. This
ensures better quality of dried products. Bala et.al (2001) reported solar drying of pineapple and conducted drying
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S. Preethi Vardhini & S. Shanmugasundaram

experiment. Natural convection dryer is low cost and locally constructed does not require any power and energy (Bala and
Mandol, 2001).
Several studies have been reported on drying of red chillies (Darshit and Agarwal, 2011; Singthong, 2009;
Dulawat et.al, 2012). Although many studies have been reported on solar tunnel drying of fruits and vegetables (Serm et.al,
2005; Bala et.al, 2001; Kangande et.al, 2012; Ogheneruona and Yusuf, 2011), limited studies have been reported on solar
tunnel drying of Green chillies (Dulawat et.al, 2012).
Main purpose of this work is to develop a small scale prototype greenhouse solar tunnel dryer for green chillies.
The overall objective is to develop a greenhouse solar tunnel dryer, study drying characteristic and comparative studies of
solar tunnel drying and open sun drying to avoid discoloration of green colour in chillies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The model was designed to dry 10-20 Kg of Green Chillies per batch. A semi-circular stand type solar tunnel
dryer of area 1.75m2m and 1.5m Height. Black Paint is used as an absorber in the dryer. The semi-circular portion of
tunnel dryer is framed with UV Stabilized Poly Carbonate sheet of 200 m thickness. UV radiation in sun rays may cause
deterioration of texture, colour, quality of the product .Hence UV stabilized poly carbonate sheets were used. The direction
of tunnel dryer is placed horizontally in East-West direction. Solar radiation passes through the transparent cover of the
dryer and heats the absorber. Ambient air is naturally convected through the drier and heat is transferred from absorber to
air inside the dryer. Hot air passes over product, absorbs moisture and heat product in drier. This improves drying rate and
temperature rises in drier in range of 35C to 65C.
Table 1: Design Conditions and Assumptions for Design of the Dryer
Conditions
Location
Orientation
Product dried
Loading capacity
Initial moisture content
Final moisture content
Sunshine hour
Drying period required
Global solar radiation (I) for
Thanjavur region
Hemispherical cover
Density of air at ambient (kg/m3)

Assumptions
Thanjavur
E-W direction
Local variety Green chillies
5 kg per batch (Single layer)
85%
10%
11 Hrs
7 Hrs
1026 W/m2
UV stabilized polycarbonate
200 micron sheet
1.252

Figure: 1a: Photograph of Green House Solar Tunnel Dryer

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.7987

NAAS Rating: 3.53

Development of Green House Solar Tunnel Dryer for Drying of Green Chillies

33

The solar tunnel dryer was designed as per the procedure mentioned above, and its dimensions are given in below
table
Table 2: Dimensions of Solar Tunnel Dryer
Components
Length
Width
Height
Area of hemispherical
shape of dryer
Tray size
Number of trays
Material of trays

Specification
2m
0.75m
1.5m
4.71 m2
0.80 m0.50 m0.05 m
2
SS 302

Experimental Procedure
The Solar Tunnel dryer was installed at Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology, Thanjavur. The drier is
placed in East West Direction in sunny place. Three trial experiments were conducted in month of November and
December 2013.
Important parameters of drier were measured. Hygro-thermometer was used to measure the drying temperature
and humidity inside the drier. Solar Radiation Sensor or Solar Pyranometer (MODEL: PYRA 300 V2) were used to
measure solar radiation. Weight loss of the product was measured using digital weighing balance. The open sun dried
samples is weighed as well. The above mentioned data were recorded at one hour interval. The moisture content of green
chillies were measured at starting and end of each experiment by air oven method.
Experiments were conducted on one variety of local variety green chillies procured form local market.. The
chillies were sorted based on size is washed and spreaded in trays and kept for open sun drying and solar tunnel drying.
The drying was usually started at 9:30 am and finished at 4:30 pm per day. Comparative study of tunnel dryer and open
sun drying were done simultaneously under same weather conditions.
The thermal efficiency of the tunnel dryer is calculated using the below formula 1 . The amount of heat required
to evaporate the moisture inside the product is called as drying efficiency. In case of solar dryer, total available solar
radiation on collector surface of the dryer gives the total heat input. The thermal efficiency is estimated using the formula
(Ayyappan, S. 2010)
={(mw hfg)/AI}100

Where
- Thermal Efficiency
mw - mass of water evaporated
hfg- Latent heat of vaporization (Kj/Kg)
A- Area of Dryer (m2)
I- Solar irradiance (W/m2)

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S. Preethi Vardhini & S. Shanmugasundaram

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The study of drying for green chillies were carried out in two drying pattern solar tunnel drying and open sun
drying. The ambient temperature, temperature inside dryer, solar insolation and RH are presented in Table below. The
moisture content decreased from 85% to 10% on wet basis using maximum temperature in the range of 54-57C with load
condition and 56 C without load condition. The mean ambient conditions for wind speed, relative humidity and maximum
solar insolation were 0.77 m/s, 31% and 1026 W/m2 respectively.
Table 3: Temperature Inside and Outside the Dryer, RH, Insolation Maintained
Time
9:30 AM
10:30 AM
11:30 AM
12:30 AM
1:30 AM
2:30 AM
3:30 AM
4:30 AM

Ambient
Temperature
33
34
34
34
34
34
33
32

Temperature
Inside the Dryer
40
55
57
62
64
54
49
42

Average Solar
Insolation
626.4
752.4
936
990
1026
684
424.8
129.6

RH Maintained
Inside
35
20
20
20
20
20
20
20

Figure 2a shows the variation of solar radiation during the typical experimental runs of solar drying of Green
chillies in the solar greenhouse dryer. During the drying of green chillies solar radiation increased sharply from 9 am to
noon but it considerably decreased in the afternoon. There was also a slight random fluctuation in solar radiation due to
cloudy sky.

Figure 2a: Variations of Solar Radiation with Time of the Day for a
Typical Experimental Run during Drying of Green Chillies
Figure 2b and 2c shows the comparison of time and temperature with and without load condition. Experiment
without load condition the temperature attains maximum temperature of 54C and with load condition maximum
temperature obtained is 60C.

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.7987

NAAS Rating: 3.53

Development of Green House Solar Tunnel Dryer for Drying of Green Chillies

35

Figure 2b: Time Vs Temperature without Load

Figure 2c: Time Vs Temperature with Load

Figure 2d and 2e shows the variation in moisture content of green chillies at different pre-treatment. The moisture
content of green chillies in the solar dryer was reduced from an initial value of 85 % (wb) to a final value of 10 % (wb)
within 3 days whereas the moisture content of the open sun drying requires 5-6 days for reducing moisture to 10 %. This
may be due to higher temperature achieved in solar tunnel dryer as compared to that of open sun drying. Thus, drying in
the solar greenhouse dryer results in reducing drying time. The similar results was reported by palled et.al (2012) and
Kangade et al (2012).

Figure 2d: Comparison of the Moisture Contents of Green Chillies inside

Greenhouse Dryer with Open-Air Sun Drying Method (Control)

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S. Preethi Vardhini & S. Shanmugasundaram

Figure 2e: Comparison of the Moisture Contents of Green Chillies inside

Greenhouse Dryer with Open-Air Sun Drying Method (Blanched)
The colour of dried green chili retains it colour after drying while that of open sun dried green chilli is turned to
white in colour due to over exposure to UV light.

Figure 2f: Colour Difference between Solar Dried and Sun Dried Green Chilli
Thus overall thermal efficiency of the solar tunnel dryer is 50-54%. The overall efficiency of the solar tunnel
dryer is due to the fact that the solar tunnel dryer is a natural convection solar dryer and the drying unit receives energy
from incident radiation.

CONCLUSIONS
Thus solar tunnel dryer demonstrate drying of green chilli in Thanjavur. Solar drying of green chillies in solar
greenhouse dryer resulted in reducing drying time as compared with open-air sun drying and products dried in solar
greenhouse tunnel dryer. The dryer can be used efficiently during sunny weather conditions and there is no requirement of
electricity source for drying. The chillies dried from solar tunnel drier retained it colour, increasing drying rate and free
from dust and insects.
REFERENCES
1.

Ayyappan, S and Mayilsamy, K. 2010. Solar tunnel drier with thermal storage for drying of copra

2.

Bala, B.K. (2009). Solar drying of fruits, vegetables, spices, medicinal plants and fish: Developments and Potentials

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.7987

NAAS Rating: 3.53

Development of Green House Solar Tunnel Dryer for Drying of Green Chillies

37

3.

Bala, B.K, Morshed, M.A and Rahman, M.F. (2009). Solar drying of mushroom using solar tunnel dryer.

4.

Debbarma M, Rawat P, Sudhakar K. (2013). Thermal performance of low cost solar bamboo dryer.

5.

Dessai, S.R, Palled, V and Anantachar, N. (2009). Performance evaluation of farm solar dryer for chilly drying.

6.

Dulawat, M.S, Rathore, N.S. (2012). Forced convection type solar tunnel dryer for industrial applications.

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Dulawat, M.S, Parakhia, A.M, Kunjadia, B.B, Joshi, N.S. (2012). Solar Tunnel Dryer for Rural Area.

8.

Kagande,L , Musoni,S and Madzore,J. (2012). Design and performance evaluation of solar tunnel dryer for tomato fruit
drying in Zimbabwe.

9.

Vaipulu. (2009). Design a prototype solar dryer for drying sea cucumber.

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