International Journal of Pure & Applied Bioscience (IJPAB)
Year : 2018, Volume : 6, Issue : 1
First page : (1368) Last page : (1373)
Article doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2320-7051.2916
Development of Solar Tunnel Dryer for Drying Tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) Slices
V. Arun Prasath1*, S.P. Rajkumar2 and Aarthy Viswanath3
1Teaching Assistant, 2,3Research Scholars
Department of Food & Agricultural Process Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore
*Corresponding Author E-mail: arun16foodengg@gmail.com
Received: 26.04.2017 | Revised: 30.05.2017 | Accepted: 5.06.2017
ABSTRACT
A small solar dryer was designed to dry 10 kg of tomatoes per day. The dryer consisted of two sections in which the front portion of the dryer acted as a solar collector with an area of 1.22 m2 and the area of drying chamber is 3.682. The dryer frame was in triangular shape with a slope angle of 310 which was covered with UV stabilized polythene sheet of 200 microns. Three fans of 15 cm diameter have been fitted at the front side of the dryer to provide air circulation inside the drying chamber whereas the other side was provided with ventilation. Tomato slices were dried in the developed solar drier at three different air velocities of 2 m/s, 3 m/s, 4 m/s respectively. The tomatoes were dried inside the solar dryer with an initial moisture content of 91 per cent (w.b.) to a final moisture content of 7.1 per cent (w.b.). During the experiment the maximum temperature obtained inside the dryer was 59.40°C at the air velocity of 3 m/s and 56.20°C and 52.30°C at 2 m/s and 3 m/s respectively. The relative humidity of 26.2 per cent, 33.2 per cent and 36.2 per cent at the air velocity of 3 m/s, 2 m/s and 4 m/s was obtained respectively and 3 m/s was found to be the optimum air velocity for drying.
Key words: Solar Tunnel Dryer, Drying Tomato Slices
Full Text : PDF; Journal doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.18782
Cite this article: Prasath, V.A., Rajkumar, S.P. and Viswanath, A., Development of Solar Tunnel Dryer for Drying Tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) Slices, Int. J. Pure App. Biosci.6(1): 1368-1373 (2018). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2320-7051.2916
