Solar Tunnel Dryer for Agro Industrial Applications
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Function |
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Natural convection walk-in type dryer for bulk drying of agricultural & agro industrial products at moderate air temperature. |
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Specifications: |
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Semicylindrical shaped tunnel with a base area of 3.75 m x 18 m for capacity of 1 ton per batch for drying of sago and coconut Metallic frame structure of tunnel dryer is covered by UV stabilized semi transparent polythene sheet of 200 micron thickness. Length of the dryer depends upon type and quantity of the product to be dried per batch. A slope of 10-15o is provided along the length of the tunnel. An exhaust fan at the upper end of the tunnel, and a few chimneys on the top of the tunnel are provided to remove the moist air. |
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Design Features |
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Sago is highly hygroscopic and the drying of roasted sago in open air is labour consuming and costly. Thus sago contains 37 % (w.b) moisture initially and it is to be brought down to 11% (w.b) by drying. This is critical process and it depends on monsoonic vagaries. Hence, it is proposed to integrate small poly cover in tunnel shaped structure for drying agro-industrial product. |
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Salient features |
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- Simple in fabrication and installation
- Maximum mean temperature obtained inside the dryer is 57° C while the ambient temperature was 33.5 °C.
- The drying time for sago drying in solar tunnel dryer is 5 h ours with 20% cost saving when compared to open sun (11 hours drying time) method
- Payback period is 5.8 years for sago product.
- The savings in drying time using coconut as produce is 16 hours, with 42 % cost saving when compared to open sun drying method.
- This tunnel dryer can also be useful for drying of
- chillies.
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5 |
Cost (approx) |
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Rs 1, 20,000 for standard size (3.75m x 18.0m) |
Contact us
Professor and Head,
Department of Bio-Energy,
TNAU, Coimbatore-641003.
Phone: 0422-6611276
Email: bioenergy@tnau.ac.in |
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