You are on page 1of 25

Solar Dr ying of

fr uits , ve getables
& herbs
Dr N K Srinivasan
Bangalore

NKS solar dryer 1


Why Solar Drying?
 Nearly 30 to 40% of fruits and vegetables get spoiled during post
harvesting in tropical countries….Solar drying is a great way of
food preservation
 Compared to freezing/canning, solar drying is simpler, less costly
with no fuel or energy needs
 Solar dried fruits and vegetables could fetch much higher prices
when stored and marketed.
 Enables seasonal products available throughout the year
 Provides better nutrition and serving pleasure
 Besides fruits and veg, solar dryers are used to dry/roast seeds
like Coffee beans ,peanuts and so on.
 Herbs ,dried, fetch a fantastic price and improves health..
 A practical solar dryer can be built for a few $ with house-hold-
garage items in a couple of hours—the technology is simple

NKS solar dryer 2


How solar drying
works?
 The aim of any drying process is to remove
moisture -80 to 90% from the food item so
that you can store for about a year.
 Solar dryer has two functional parts:
 to absorb solar energy and heat the air
To pass the hot air over the food item
• It is that simple!!

NKS solar dryer 3


Solar energy absorber
 Sun’s rays are let into a box through a glass or
plastic cover ,called ‘glazing’.
 The light energy is absorbed by a black surface…a
black sheet metal or even black paper [craft paper
or black garbage bag] will do.
 The heat absorber emits infra-red or heat rays
which cannot pass through glass/plastic, acting as
heat trap or green house
 So the temperature of the air inside the box rises.

NKS solar dryer 4


Hot air dryer
 The hot air surrounding the absorber is passed over
the tray or mesh containing food items
 The hot air absorbs moisture from food item
 The hot air is let out through a vent.
 In most dryers a natural convection flow is used.
 Vents at the bottom let in cold air. The hot air with
moisture leaves at the top vents.
 You can add a fan/blower to push the air faster.

NKS solar dryer 5


Simple Dryer design
 In simple box type dryers, the design is pretty simple.
 Provide holes at the bottom or side near the bottom
 Keep the black absorber close to the bottom
 Place a sheet with holes or netting [nylon] above the absorber to
hold the food items
 Place the glass/plastic cover at the top.
 Use insulation at the side and bottom to reduce heat losses
 Keep the food tray or netting such that you can easily put them in
or take them out.
 Let the dryer face the Sun!!
 You can make the dryer box out of a cardboard box!!
 Use black paper for absorber!!!
 Use newspaper or coir or rice hull or peanut shells for insulation!

NKS solar dryer 6


‘ Minimum’ Solar tray
dryer

 I built a “minimum ‘ solar dryer using a single ,shallow cardboard box----


 The bottom tray is an aluminum tray, painted black or pasted with black construction paper;
 A rectangular cut-out is made on the lid;
 A plastic sheet or two sheets pasted on the cut out to form the window or glazing.
 Thin strips of Al foil is pasted on the inside side walls.
 Punch a few holes [4mm dia] on the two opposite sides as vent holes
 Fill the space between the tray and the wall of the box with crumpled newspaper.
 Two panel reflectors are made with cardboard lined with Al foil, for the size of the cut-out window. This is
optional---on a bright day, you may not need them at all…make then easy to detach…
 Fix the panels at the back and front, and adjust the angle with sealing tapes.
 You may tilt the box towards the Sun with wooden or cardboard pieces ,typically 20 deg South.
 Measure the inner temperature with an oven [dial] thermometer.
 Total time to make this dryer after you have gathered the items: 1 to 2 hours only.
 The operating temperature for drying is in the range 40 to 60 deg C.
 You may remove the reflector if the temp goes higher than the desired range.
 Adjust the vent holes [cover them with cardboard pieces to reduce the air flow rate.]
 If moisture or caramel condenses on the glazing or elsewhere, increase the vent holes…
 You need to make some trails on this score--- to adjust the air temperature and the air flow rate.
 Maintenance: keep the glazing clean by wiping with cloth after each use; clean the tray for left over food
items/pieces.
 If small insectsa re problem, cover the vent holes with nylon or steel mesh screens.

NKS solar dryer 7


Two-box designs
 The solar dryer can be made with two boxes: one absorber or
collector box and another dryer box
 The collector box can be big, with large surface area for glazing
and absorber sheet [typically 2feet by 4 feet area]
 The dryer box is kept at higher level ,mainly to hold the food item
trays.
 It is easier to control the temperature in this design by covering
the glazed area to reduce temp if required.
 The two boxes are connected by a duct, well insulated.
 One square meter area of collector can dry 2 to 3 kg of food…this
is an approximate thumb-rule.
 See the diagram in the next slide.

NKS solar dryer 8


A simple solar dryer design

NKS solar dryer 9


Tent dryer
 A simple dryer for large quantities is a tent dyer.
 The tent is made of bamboo or wooden sticks.
 The roof is made of plastic sheet.
 The food item is kept on netting or mesh or just cloth.
 A black cloth or sheet beneath the netting is enough
 Such large tent dryers are used in Malawi to dry sweet
potatoes…
 Tent dryers are more economical and can be scaled up
for larger quantities of food to be dried.

NKS solar dryer 10


Roof dryers
 This large scale drying is made of steel
[corrugated metal] roof, painted black.
 The food is kept in a loft close to the roof
inside the building.
 You can add a glass glazing above the
steel roof but not necessary
 Tea leaves and many other items have
been dried this way.
NKS solar dryer 11
Tunnel dryer design
 For large scale application, a
tunnel is produced with
polythene sheet covering the
tunnel
 The trays with the food items
is moved slowly through the
tunnel, making it a continuous
system
 Coffee
drying/cocoa/copra/fruits/tea
leaves is often done by tunnel
dryers
 Tunnel dryers are suitable for
village/community level/small
industry units

NKS solar dryer 12


Box cookers as dryers
 Box cookers modify as dryers
 In cookers you seal the box…for drying,
allow vents or opening to pass the air’
 For drying you need only 40 to 70 deg C…
may remove the reflectors…just the hot box
 [cooking requires much higher
temperatures—70 to 100 deg C]

NKS solar dryer 13


Using the dryer
 Clean the vegetables/fruits and wash them well
 Cut in to small pieces as required
 Pretreatments like blanching, dipping in ascorbic/citric acid may
be needed
 Place in the dryer
 Adjust the vent holes to control the flow of air
 The temp inside may rise from 40 deg C to as high as 80 deg C
 You need 40 to 70 deg C for quick drying
 It may take 1 to 3 days to completely dry
 Veg will become brittle while fruits would be pliable and leathery
 Store the dried pieces after weighing in glass jars in a cool ,dry
place

NKS solar dryer 14


Box temperature-
steady temperature
 While using ,you observe a steady temperature after some time…
the drying takes place at a constant temperature.
 The dry temperature is the temperature of an empty dryer,without
food itemd…this will be high –abou 50 to 60 deg C.
 When food items are placed,there will be a drop in temperature
due to moisture in the air…
 Again the temp will rise and oscillate
 Finally a steady temp will be reached…
 Performance of the dryer depends on this steady temperature
 This temp depends on the food item and the solar energy at that
time, for a given dryer design

NKS solar dryer 15


Back ups for dryers
 To continue drying after sunshine or at night ,a thermal mass is
needed.. rocks, stones even water bottles can be used inside the
drying chamber…to retain the heat…
 Some use hygroscopic calcium chloride to keep warm air
 You need a fan or blower for larger systems to push hot air.
 Forced circulation with fans increase the capacity of a dryer 6
times; reduces the drying time by half, compared to natural
convection
 Some use solar cells panel plus a small fan for air flow.
 Some use a thermal-ventilator which is like a small outside
windmill.
 Additional reflectors can be added to reduce collector area.

NKS solar dryer 16


Dehydration reactions

 While dehydrating food items, some chemical reactions may take


place.
 Formation of caramel,or ‘caramelisation’ is a common chemical
reaction while drying carrots, peanuts and so on…
 The alcohols combine to form ethers and water which evaporates.
 2 R-OH  R-O-R + H-H-O
 Alcohol  ether + water
 The esters have fine aroma and also nice color [reddish orange]
 The caramel may settle on glazing and should be cleaned with
wet cloth.
 This process gives a nutty flavor to peanuts and brownish color.
 It could be oxidation of sugars
 Caramelisation is complex and poorly understood set of chemical
reactions.

NKS solar dryer 17


Roasters
 Roasting peanuts, almonds and coffee beans require
higher temperatures.
 Solar box cookers can be modified for roasting .
 Concentrating type collectors, like trough collectors are
used for roasting.
 One company is USA is using a set of mirrors with 20
KW power to roast 30lb of coffee beans per batch
 Peanut roasters with small parabolic reflectors have
been used in Africa and elsewhere. At the focal plane,
keep a tube with peanuts which can be rocked for even
roasting.

NKS solar dryer 18


Trough concentrator & Box
cookers for roasting
 Trough concentrator
 Box cooker

NKS solar dryer 19


Herb dryers

 Drying herbs require lower temperatures


—typically35 to 40 deg C
 Small dryers [DIY] can be made with
photo frames, nylon netting or steel mesh
–no reflector is needed.
 Large herb dryers are like the fruit dryers
with higher air flow rate.

NKS solar dryer 20


Use in tropical countries

 In tropical countries like India/parts of Africa ,fruits and


veg get spoiled in a few days
 Drying helps to preserve for a year or so and then
fetches higher prices too---especially fruits like grapes
turned into raisins, mango leathers, gooseberry [Amla]
 Dried fruits are used to make sweet jellies and patties
& candies in India
 A tunnel dryer has been used for drying apples in
Nepal.
 Mango drying in parts of India
 One can save nearly 30 to 40% of precious food
products this way

NKS solar dryer 21


Solar dryers world
over!
 Latin America –Coffee beans
 Dominican republic—Cocoa
 Trinidad-Copra
 Uganda—fruits/veg including mangos
 Nepal—apples
 India—fruits, chillies, herbs

NKS solar dryer 22


My experiences

 I made box type dryers with card board box, plastic glazing and outside
insulation with corrugated paper sheets/thermocole; box size: 14 in x 12 in
x 8in
 I use a reflector for additional heat input
 Black construction paper as absorber
 Use a thermometer for temp measurement
 Have dried fruits/veg in wintry months too.
 Temp difference between ambient and inside --_5 to 30 deg Centigrade in
December in Bangalore.
 Inside temp 40 to 50 deg C on most days.
 Food items kept on trays with stainless steel mesh---about 100 to 200
grams in each batch…
 Total cost : Rs 100 or $2 only
 I also made an indirect dryer—two box design for larger amount of items
in the dryer

NKS solar dryer 23


A few references

 www.greenplants.org
 www.solar-alternatives.com
 www.backwoodshome.com
 www.jrwhipple.com
 www.iqsolarpower.com
 www.solarcookers.org
 www.solardevicesforthirdworld.webs.com
 Beth Halacy and Dan Halacy—Cooking with the sun
[1992]
 Eben Fodor---” Solar food dryer”

NKS solar dryer 24


Contact

 nksrinivasan@hotmail.com
 Dr N K Srinivasan
 Location: Palo Alto [CA] or
 Bangalore ,India [Camp]
 Website:
www.solardevicesforthirdworld.webs.com

NKS solar dryer 25

You might also like