*Department of Energy Engineering, Regional Centre, Anna University Tirunelveli Region, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India
**Assistant Professor, Department of Energy Engineering, Regional Centre, Anna University Tirunelveli Region, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India
Online published on 11 November, 2013.
Drying is a simple process of moisture removal from a product in order to reach the desired moisture content. It is an excellent way to preserve food and solar food dryers are appropriate food preservation technology for sustainable development. Various types of solar dryers are presently available in the market. In this work a mixed mode solar dryer is considered. Nowadays mixed mode solar dryer are commonly used to attain quick drying of agricultural and marine products such as fishes and prawns. In this paper evaluation parameters for various food crops are analyzed. Suitable design factors are analyzed and an approximate mathematical model is developed. Based on the loading capacity a model is fabricated. Testing is carried out with and without blower. An efficiency of 43.04% & 19.72% was obtained with and without blower.
