Development of an Indirect Active Solar Dryer for Cassava Chips

This work substantiates the potential of solar energy as a clean energy resource in crop processing. It presents the principles of solar energy capture for crop drying using PV-powered active dryer. A forced convection solar dryer was designed, constructed and applied in drying of a local crop (cassava chips). The system was constructed using locally available materials, with flat plate collector, fan, photovoltaic panel and battery as the driving components. It was tested under no load and load conditions. The equipment was tested to study the effect of active airflow on crop drying rate. The tests were carried out in two replications, each from 8am to 6pm Nigerian Time. At no load maximum temperatures of 60℃ and 48℃ were obtained in the collector unit and drying cabinet respectively, while the ambient temperature was 35℃. Under load condition maximum temperatures of 57.5℃ and 50℃ were obtained in the collector unit and drying cabinet respectively while the ambient temperature was 36.4℃. In a day with maximum ambient temperature of 32℃ , the dryer efficiency was calculated as 53.2% and drying time of cassava chips in the forced convection solar dryer was 10 hours.