1College of Dairy and Food Science Technology, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan
2AICRP on RES, CIAE, Bhopal, M.P.
3AICRP, Cooperative Centre, DRES, CTAE, MPUA&T, Udaipur.
A low cost design of walk-in type solar tunnel dryer for bulk drying of farm and agro-industrial products has been developed, field evaluated and the design parameters finalized under All India Coordinated Research project on Renewable Sources of Energy for Agriculture and Agro-based Industries. The dryers have been set-up at many sites for drying products such as gooseberry fruits, various vegetables & spices, surgical cotton, hand-made paper sheets, feed-grade chemical, etc for as high as 1.5 tonne per batch loading capacity. The solar tunnel dryers are in regular use for as long as six years. The technology has cut the cost of drying by more than 50% and affected substantial savings in commercial sources of energy for applications where it has replaced petro fuel and/or electricity.
Solar drying, solar tunnel dryer, low-cost solar dryer, agro-industrial farm dryer
