Solar Dryer and Post Harvest Management in Ethiopia: Design and CFD Simulation
Abstract
A solar tunnel dryer system utilizes solar energy to heat up air and to dry any food substance loaded to it, this leads to reduce wastage of agricultural products and prolong their life by natural drying, and has limitations such as, exposure to sunlight, liability pests and rodents, and lack of proper monitoring. The aim of this paper is to design and simulation a solar tunnel dryer for drying of cereal’s, fruits and vegetables. In this dryer, the grains have placed directly at absorber and exposed to direct solar radiation. The airflow and associated pressure development in the drying chamber is analyzed with CFD. The initial and final moisture content considered were 35 and 15 percent for maize, and 94 and 10 percent for tomato. The dryer is designed to dry one-ton of maize in four days, and 250Kg of sliced tomato in two days. The dryer has an integrated fan to drive the moist air, which is powered by energy. The simulation considers Mekelle, weather data as its input. Keywords: Tunnel dryer; solar dryer; postharvest loss; tomato dryer; simulation of tunnel dryer; Forced dryer