Modification of Design, Construction & Performance Test of a Solar Biomass Hybrid Dryer

Drying, particularly of crops, is a vital agricultural activity and globally the uses of shriveled products are ubiquitous. In this paper, an alternative method of drying agricultural products has been developed along with the performance for drying green chili was also evaluated. The purpose of this investigation is to present the design modification, construction and better performance test of a solar biomass hybrid dryer. The results which acquired during test period showed that the temperature inside solar collector and dryer were adequately higher than the ambient temperature during most hours of the experiment. The ambient air temperature at the collector inlet was varied from 30° to 35°C. The temperature of air at outlet of collector was differed from 54° to 64°C and the drying chamber temperature was differed from 51° to 60°C which is suitable for drying of green chili and many other agricultural products. The efficiency of the collector was found to be 46.54%. The results uncovered that drying is affected by the modification of collector, producing turbulent flow of air and improvement of insulation of chamber walls. Based on this experimental, the developed solar biomass hybrid dryer is suitable for small scale crops farmers in rural areas of developing countries with reasonable cost.