This paper presents field level performance of the solar tunnel dryer for drying of fish. The dryer consists of a transparent plastic covered flat plate collector and a drying tunnel connected in series to supply hot air directly into the drying tunnel using four d.c. fans, operated by two 40 watt solar modules. This dryer can be used to dry upto 150 kg of fish and three sets of full scale field level drying runs for drying silver jew (Johnius argentatus) fish were conducted in February-March, 1999. The temperature of the drying air at the collector outlet varied from 35.1 8C to 52.2 8C during drying. The fish was initially treated with dry salt and stacked for about 16 hours before drying. The salt treated fish was dried to a moisture content of 16.78% (w.b.) from 67% (w.b.) in 5 days of drying in solar tunnel dryer as compared to 5 days of drying in the traditional method for comparable samples to a final moisture content of 32.84%. In addtion, the fish dried in the solar tunnel dryer was completely protected from rain, insects and dust, and the dried fish was a high quality product.
427
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.