Design And Construction Of Forced Convection Indirect Solar Dryer

ABSTRACT

This project presents the design and construction of indirect forced convection solar crop dryer for drying moringa leaves. The dryer is made up of the drying chamber and four collectors, consisting of a transparent polythene sheet as the cover and rock pebbles as the absorber. A solar energy of about 417W/M2incident on the collector is transmitted and absorbed by the rock pebbles to heat the air forced into the drying chamber by convection with the help of a D.0 fan powered by rechargeable battery, charged by solar cells. 22.2g of fresh rnoringa leaves at the initial moisture content of 80%wb was dried to 1 O%wb in 16 hours at air drying temperature of 44.2°C and relative humidity of 49%. An efficiency of 15% was achieved with the dryer.