Experimental Study on Direct, Indirect and open Air Drying of Kiwi Fruits using a Hybrid Cabinet type Solar Dryer

Authors

  • Maryam Al Baloushi, Dr. Parimal Bhambare, Dr. Rupesh Yadav, Dr. M. Achuthan, Dr. Santosh Walke

Abstract

Drying is one of the most ancient method used by mankind for increasing the shelf life of food products. Solar dryers are used due to their several advantages over open air drying. In the present work, a comparative analysis has been presented between open air natural drying, direct solar drying and indirect solar drying for drying of Kiwifruits. A hybrid solar dryer has been used for the analysis and experimentation. The dryer has facility to conduct the solar direct and indirect drying in two different chambers at the same time. The experiments were conducted for three different samples of same weight and the fruit temperature, moisture content, moisture loss, drying rates & the moisture ratio have been calculated on hourly basis. The analysis of the results plotted have revealed that higher drying rates, lowest moisture content and better product quality can be obtained using indirect solar drying method. The color, texture and the appearance of the dried samples from indirect solar drying is found better when compared to other two methods. Thus indirect solar drying is found to be the best solar drying process and can be used in commercial drying applications for these type of fruits.

Keywords- open air, direct, indirect, hybrid solar dryer, solar energy.

Published

2020-12-21

Issue

Section

Articles