Experimental and Comparison Studies on Drying Characteristics of Green Chilies in a Solar Tunnel Greenhouse Dryer and in the Open Sun Drying Method
International Journal of Innovative Science and Modern Engineering (IJISME), 2 (11):
36-40 (October 2014)Abstract
A natural convection solar tunnel dryer was designed and developed for carrying out the experimental and comparison studies on drying characteristics of green chillies in Negamam region of Pollachi, Tamil Nadu (India) during the month of April, 2014. About 50 kgs of green chillies were carried out in the dryer and is repeated for three trails. The drying parameters such as product quality and drying time were taken into account for finding the best suitable method of drying of products. The solar tunnel greenhouse dryer dried the green chillies which has an initial moisture content of 88.5% to a final moisture content of 7.4% over a time period of 55 hours whereas the open sun drying method took 125 hours for the same. Also the quality of green chillies obtained from the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer was found to be of superior quality to that of open sun dried green chillies.