Development of an Energy Efficient Portable Convective Fish-Dryer

Abstract

A portable multipurpose electrical dryer of 10 kg
capacity was designed and developed for drying of
fishe and other agricultural products. The dryer
consists of a drying chamber with total drying area
of 2.8 m2, fan, heating element and exhaust vent. The
dryer was fabricated using locally sourced materials.
Under ‘no-load’ conditions, the drying chamber
attained highest temperature of 50±5°C within 60
min of operation. Relative humidity and velocity of
drying air inside the drying chamber were observed
to be 65% and 0.8 m/s respectively. The study of
energy consumption pattern indicated a drying
efficiency of 21.42%. A performance evaluation
study of the dryer was done for sardine and the
maximum drying time required for complete drying
was eight hours. Results showed that the entire
drying processes occurred under falling rate period.
A logarithmic model fitted to the drying data very
well for the specified range of drying conditions.