Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol. 28, Dec. Suppl Issue, 2022; Page No.(400-405)

EFFECT OF SOLAR TRACKING ON THE DRYING BEHAVIOUR OF POTATO CHIPS IN BOX TYPE OF SOLAR DRYER

Indraveer Singh and S.C. Moses

Abstract

A Solar cabinet dryer is used to dry Potato chips under controlled and protected conditions. An attempt was taken to perform uniform drying in each tray of the dryer from top to bottom. A solar dryer is used to dry 1.5 - 4 kg of Potato chips in 1-2 days. The maximum temperature is 56 °C. When ambient air temperature was 42 °C at no load condition. The air temperature at 1St inlet and 2nd inlet of the dryer were 5-8 °C and 12- 18 °C more than ambient air temperature respectively. An effect of solar tracking on the performance on the solar dryer was estimated by two methods. Firstly, the drying of Potato chips was done in the dryer without tracking of sun. Secondly, drying of same amount of Potato chips was carried out with tracking of sun manually. Both the modes of drying were performed well in the dryer. It was found that by using tracking method, the drying time can be reduced by 2-4 hours for the given amount of Potato chips. The quality of dried Potato chips in both the methods was found to be the same which was examined by organoleptic evaluation.