scholarly journals A Research on Development of a Fixed Solar Dryer with a Practical Research

Solar energy heating apparatus to dry food and other crops that can enhance the quality of the product while reducing the wasted product. Drying is an eminent way to preserve the food and solar energy food drying is an approximate food preservation mechanism for a sustainable real world. This fixed solar dryer has the capacity of 15 kg which is used for the preservation, drying of grapes, potatoes, onions, mango pulp, chilies, green leafy vegetables, jack fruit pulp, green pepper, herbal medicines, ginger etc., more than 50 kinds have been dried using this solar dryer at various AKRUTI’S. Drying will generally refers to the removal of moisture content by evaporation rather than by pressure or other physical parameters. Our country is blessed with ample of solar energy round the year. The principle of this dryer is that, hot air is lighter than the cool air and its raises up the altitude. While raising this warm air comes in contact with food slices and draws the moisture from it. The repeated cycle of this process makes it a low cost, very healthy, long term investment. Generally the sun’s power of heat is used to dry up the moisture content of the fruits or vegetables.

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-160
Author(s):  
S Tabassum ◽  
MS Bashar ◽  
MS Islam ◽  
A Sharmin ◽  
SC Debnath ◽  
...  

Solar thermal energy is an alternative source of energy which can be used for drying vegetables, fishes, fruits or other kinds of material, such as wood. In Bangladesh, there exist significant post-harvest losses of agricultural products due to lack of the use of proper preservation system. Drying by using solar thermal energy can be an effective solution for this loss. As Bangladesh is situated in latitude 23°43’N and longitude 90°26’E, this is very much suitable to use solar thermal energy. To reduce the limitations of the natural sun drying e.g. exposure of the foodstuff to rain and dust; uncontrolled drying; exposure to direct sunlight; infestation by insects etc., two types of solar dryer (low cost solar dryer for small production and solar dryer for large production) were developed. The design was based on the geographical location of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The experiments were conducted to dry vegetables and fishes. The obtained results revealed that the temperatures inside the dryer were much higher than the ambient temperature. The rapid rate of drying proves its ability to dry food to keep in safe moisture level in a hygienic environment. Microbiological and nutritional values ensure a superior quality of the dried product also. Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res.54(2), 155-160, 2019


Author(s):  
P. Sivamma ◽  
E. Mounika ◽  
K. Carolin Rathinakumari ◽  
G. Senthil Kumaran ◽  
B. Bindu

Solar greenhouse drying is a method of removing moisture from the food material in which drying medium is solar energy which is easily available and low in cost for farmers. The solar energy is decreases in the monsoon months in comparison to non-monsoon months. The decrease in the solar energy results in lower temperatures in the solar greenhouse dryer. The aluminium foil which has 88% reflectivity, reflects the radiation inside solar greenhouse dryer and heats the air inside dryer and maintains heat for longer times.Aluminium foil was applied on eastern, western and southern walls of the dryer and the parameters viz; temperature and relative humidity were recorded in both modified solar greenhouse dryer, solar greenhouse dryer and ambient conditions. Assessment of temperature in ambient condition, solar greenhouse dryer with and without modification showed the maximum temperature difference between solar greenhouse dryer without modification and ambient condition was about 11.5°C whereas 17.5°C maximum temperature difference between modified solar greenhouse dryer and ambient condition. The dryer was able to reduce moisture content of onion from initial moisture content of 679 per cent dry basis to 5.7 per cent in 31 h of drying whereas the traditional sun drying was able to reduce moisture content of onion from initial moisture content of 679 per cent dry basis to 29 per cent in 31 h of drying time. The results showed a considerable advantage of solar dryer over the traditional open sun drying method in term of drying rate and less risk for spoilage.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mavis Owureku-Asare ◽  
Ibok Oduro ◽  
Firibu K. Saalia ◽  
Charles Tortoe ◽  
R. P. Kingsly Ambrose

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most important vegetable plants in the world used in cooking foods. In Ghana, at peak seasons of harvesting tomato, high postharvest loses are incurred because of the absence of industrial tomato processing facilities for value addition into other convenient forms to extend shelf-life. Solar drying is a more efficient and low cost method of enhancing the quality and adding value to tomato. This study was carried out to design a natural mixed mode solar dryer suitable for drying tomato and to investigate the quality characteristics of the dried products. Fresh tomatoes were pre-treated with: a) 1% potassium metabisulfite solution; b) 1 % ascorbic acid solution; and c) used untreated as control. Pre-treated tomatoes were dried for three days on the average till there was no significant change in the final moisture content. Open-sun drying was used as a control for comparison purposes. The final moisture content for pre-treated solar dried and sun-dried tomato was 14 - 15 % and 19 - 22 %, respectively. The ash content was higher in the sun-dried samples compared to the solar dried samples, an indication of contamination with extraneous materials from the environment. Sulfur dioxide content of 740.8 mg/Kg d.w., for solar dried tomato pre-treated with potassium metabisulfite was much lower than the maximum legal limit of 2000 mg/Kg d.w., of sulfur dioxide recommended in fruits. Solar and sun-dried tomato pre-treated with potassium metabisulfite had significantly higher carotenoids, lycopene and beta carotene contents than pre-treated samples, and the controls. The quality of pre-treated solar-dried tomato was better enhanced by the use of the solar dryer compared to sun-drying.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-20
Author(s):  
Yuwana Yuwana

Experiment on catfish drying employing ‘Teko Bersayap’ solar dryer was conducted. The result of the experiment indicated that the dryer was able to increase ambient temperature up to 44% and decrease ambient relative humidity up to 103%. Fish drying process followed equations : KAu = 74,94 e-0,03t for unsplitted fish and KAb = 79,25 e-0,09t for splitted fish, where KAu = moisture content of unsplitted fish (%), KAb = moisture content of splitted fish (%), t = drying time. Drying of unsplitted fish finished in 43.995 hours while drying of split fish completed in 15.29 hours. Splitting the fish increased 2,877 times drying rate.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 661-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Asadullah Jahangir ◽  
Chettupalli Anand ◽  
Abdul Muheem ◽  
Sadaf Jamal Gilani ◽  
Mohamad Taleuzzaman ◽  
...  

Herbal medicines are being used since ancient times and are an important part of the alternative and traditional medicinal system. In recent decades, scientists are embracing herbal medicines based on the fact that a number of drugs that are currently in use are derived directly or indirectly from plant sources. Moreover, herbal drugs have lesser side effects, albeit are potentially strong therapeutic agents. The herbal medicine market is estimated to be around US $62 billion globally. Herbal medicine has gained widespread acceptance due to its low toxicity, low cost, ease of accessibility and efficacy in treating difficult diseases. Safety and efficacy are another important factors in the commercialization process of herbal medicines. Nanotechnology has been shown to be potentially effective in improving the bioactivity and bioavailability of herbal medicines. Development of nano-phytomedicines (or by reducing the size of phytomedicine), attaching polymers with phytomedicines and modifying the surface properties of herbal drugs, have increased the solubility, permeability and eventually the bioavailability of herbal formulations. Novel formulations such as niosomes, liposomes, nanospheres, phytosomes etc., can be exploited in this area. This article reviews herbal medicines, which have prominent activity in the Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders and reported nano-phytomedicines based delivery systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nitin R. Shirsath ◽  
Ajaygiri K. Goswami

Introduction: These days, a lot of people face some health-related problems in day to day life. The conventional synthetic medicine is not effective enough to cure them alone. The conventional therapy for the management of these health-related issues involves the use of hazardous synthetic chemicals and surgical diagnosis, which have lots of serious side effects. It is necessary to conduct research on herbal medicines, this is an alternative approach to avoid the side effects of synthetic medicines to achieve high effectiveness, low cost and improve patient compliance. Methods: The present survey is an analysis of some of the available data on the use of plants with their biological source, active phytochemicals constituents and a probable activity/ mechanism of action of several classes of drugs. This work also focused on highlighting the advantages of natural medicines for maximum utilization. Results: This article aims to increase awareness about natural medicine and help people find a suitable herbal medicine for the treatment of specific diseases. Conclusion: This article also exhibits the scope for further process in the development of new natural substance for the management of several diseases.


Author(s):  
Cheng Tian ◽  
Chengcheng Li ◽  
Delun Chen ◽  
Yifan Li ◽  
LEI XING ◽  
...  

Designing low-cost and efficient evaporation system to maximize solar energy utilization is of great importance for the emerging solar water purification technologies. Herein, we demonstrate a universal sandwich hydrogel by...


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 616
Author(s):  
Virginia Birlanga ◽  
José Ramón Acosta-Motos ◽  
José Manuel Pérez-Pérez

Cultivated lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is one of the most important leafy vegetables in the world, and most of the production is concentrated in the Mediterranean Basin. Hydroponics has been successfully utilized for lettuce cultivation, which could contribute to the diversification of production methods and the reduction of water consumption and excessive fertilization. We devised a low-cost procedure for closed hydroponic cultivation and easy phenotyping of root and shoot attributes of lettuce. We studied 12 lettuce genotypes of the crisphead and oak-leaf subtypes, which differed on their tipburn resistance, for three growing seasons (Fall, Winter, and Spring). We found interesting genotype × environment (G × E) interactions for some of the studied traits during early growth. By analyzing tipburn incidence and leaf nutrient content, we were able to identify a number of nutrient traits that were highly correlated with cultivar- and genotype-dependent tipburn. Our experimental setup will allow evaluating different lettuce genotypes in defined nutrient solutions to select for tipburn-tolerant and highly productive genotypes that are suitable for hydroponics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 276 ◽  
pp. 01031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Partogi H Simatupang ◽  
Petrus Lubalu ◽  
Herry L Sianturi ◽  
Wilhelmus Bunganaen

Kupang City in Timor Island of Indonesia, as a semiarid area, has abundant solar energy sources. Based on climatology data of Kupang City in 2013-2015, the minimum and maximum average temperatures in Kupang City range from 19.3-34.8oC. Besides, dry seasons last for about 8 months (April-November). This abundance of solar energy is a potential energy resource for the manufacturing of environmentally friendly ferrogeopolymer elements. Based on previous research, the production of geopolymer material can be done optimally with dry curing treatment at 60-80oC for less than 48 hours. Therefore, in this paper, a low-cost, energy efficient oven operated by a solar energy collector was developed. This paper describes a feasibility study of the use of solar energy for curing ferro-geopolymer elements. The ferro-geopolymer elements made were beams with length 600 mm, width 100 mm and height 100 mm. Wire meshes with 6x6mm of opening were used in 5 layers. The solar energy collector system used as an oven was a zinc coated drum which was painted black outwardly and was covered by a glass plate. Using this oven, it was possible to increase the ambient temperature by 1.62 to 2,37 times. Furthermore, this oven can also increase the flexure strength of ferrogeopolymer elements about ± 25.34%. This paper shows good potential use of solar energy in the manufacturing of ferro-geopolymer elements in the semiarid region.


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