Performance Evaluation of Solar Hybrid Dryer for Drying of Pineapple Slices

Abstract

In many countries most of the harvested fruits and vegetable are weak to deterioration due to poor preservation. The agriculture products are to be stored for longer length of time, it is necessary to remove the moisture level. In many types of dryer, drying is not continuous and during night time moisture is absorbed by the product. Due to this total fungal count and total microbes count increases. To overcome this problem, electric heater can be used to make drying continuous and during night times or off sunshine hours electric heater can be used for the drying of pineapple slices. The 8 kg pineapple slices was dried in solar hybrid dryer from initial moisture content of 84% (wb) to final moisture content of 9.91% (wb) in 10 h and electricity consumed 3 kWh. The dried products in solar hybrid dryer were contained negligible bacteria and fungi as compared to solar cabinet dryer. The bacteria count for the solar hybrid dryer was 0.1×103 CFL/gm. The developed solar hybrid dryer system was economically as well as technically feasible. The main of this study to increases the quality of dried products and reduces bacterial and fungal attack.