Solar Crop Dryers for the Caribbean

C.K. Sankat, D.R. McGaw and O. Headley

No 260400, 23rd Annual Meeting, August 23-28, 1987, St. John's, Antigua from Caribbean Food Crops Society

Abstract: Crop drying in the Caribbean is carried out mainly by small farmers and estates, the normal technique being by simply spreading the material out in the sun. This method however, suffers from a number of disadvantages which could be alleviated by the use of solar or mechanical dryers. The paper describes an approach which identifies two basic types of simple, natural convection solar dryers well suited for the small farmer situation, where only small quantities would be dried at any time. Experimental results are presented which demonstrate dryer performance for both types. In the case of drying produce from the larger estates where much larger quantities are being harvested, the packed bed dryer is projected. This type of dryer can operate using either solar energy, hydrocarbon fuel or biomass as an energy source or, alternatively, can utilise any convenient combination of these sources. For the drying of timber and forages, greenhouse type solar dryers, working either by natural or forced convection are described.

Keywords: Crop Production/Industries; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 13
Date: 1987-08-23
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:cfcs87:260400

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.260400

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