Design and Implementation of a Cost-Effective Solar Photo Voltaic Food Dryer for Rural Botswana

For many centuries, humans have been using energy from the sun to dry food stuff like fruits, meat, vegetables, and field crops by placing them on mats and putting them under the sun. Natural food drying has been a way of preserving food after the harvesting season. For most cases it has been proven that solar energy is highly efficient and environmentally friendly when used to maintain the quality of food stuffs. The only problem about natural food drying is that food becomes contaminated with dust, pests and airborne molds which makes it more harmful and unhealthier for consumption. To counter this problem, this project is about the design of a Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) based food dryer that will help give a controlled working condition to produce better-looking, better-tasting, and more nourishing food, thereby increasing food value and their marketability. The control functions of temperature and humidity regulation are made possible by a PIC16F877A microcontroller. A detailed discussion of the simulation of the solar photovoltaic food dryer records that temperature and humidity can be regulated to any desirable values with temperature above 55℃ and humidity level below 5% attainable in the drying chamber. From this study, the results show that the design of a solar photovoltaic based food dryer suggested a promising attempt to ensure quality and efficiency when drying food.