Design and Construction of Briefcase Type Portable Solar Dryer

Abstract

Sun drying is one of the old method of drying farm produce ever known to man and it includes simply laying the agricultural products in the sun on mats, roofs or drying floors. This has many disadvantages since the farm produce are put in the open sky and there is greater risk of spoilage due to adverse climatic conditions like rain, wind, moist and dust, loss of produce to birds, insects and rodents (pests); entirely dependent on good weather and much slow rate of drying with danger of mould growth thereby causing deterioration and decomposition of the produce. The process also requires large area of land takes time and highly labour intensive. With cultural and industrial development, artificial mechanical drying came into practice, but this process is highly energy intensive and expensive which ultimately increases product cost. Recently, efforts for improving “sun drying” have led to “solar drying”. In solar drying, solar dryers are specialized devices that control the drying process and protect agricultural produce from damage by insect pests dust and rain. The solar drying system utilizes solar energy to heat up air and to dry any food substance loaded, which is beneficial in reducing wastage of agricultural product and helps in preservation of agricultural product. Based on the limitations of the natural sun drying e.g. exposure to direct sunlight, liability to pests and rodents lack of proper monitoring, and the escalated cost of the mechanical dryer, a solar is therefore developed to cater for this limitation.