Development and Performance Evaluation of a Mobile Solar Dryer for Cassava Chips

A.P. Olalusi, A.S. Ogunlowo and B.O. Bolaji

Energy & Environment, 2012, vol. 23, issue 8, 1261-1272

Abstract: In this study, a mobile, indirect passive solar drying system was designed and constructed on the principles of convective heat flow using locally sourced materials to dry cassava chips. The performance of the dryer was evaluated and the results obtained showed that the system is to a large extent effective in dehydrating food items reasonably and rapidly to a save moisture level. The maximum temperatures obtained in the collector, lower and upper parts of the drying chamber were 78.5, 71.0 and 68.5°C, respectively during the validation test at no-load operating condition, while maximum temperature of 71.0, 62.5 and 60.0°C, respectively were obtained during the dehydration test. The maximum ambient air temperature was 33.5°C. The dryer was able to reduce the moisture content of 500 g cassava chips from 74.5 to 20.3% (dry basis) in 6 hours of effective dehydration time. The system overall thermal efficiency and average drying rate were found to be 58.4% and 0.083 kg/h, respectively.

Keywords: mobile; solar; dryer; cassava chips; performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1260/0958-305X.23.8.1261 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:engenv:v:23:y:2012:i:8:p:1261-1272

DOI: 10.1260/0958-305X.23.8.1261

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Energy & Environment
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().