Executive Summary : | Objective: a. Design, fabrication and erection of a prototype solar dehumidified drier for cost effective post-harvest drying of agricultural crops.
b. Optimize the drying conditions for different agricultural crops and work out the costing.
c. Comparison of cost between solar dehumidified driers and electrical operated humidified dries and estimation of energy savings and cost reduction in long run.
d. Quality evaluation of end products
e. Demonstration before user industries for commercialization Summary: CSIR NIIST has developed dehumidified drying mechanism for the post-harvest processing of various agro produces for their shelf life enhancement. This involves drying the material under controlled lower temperature and uniform distribution of air to retain the functional properties and retention of micronutrients & flavour in the material. In this dryer, energy is conserved by recycling air to the dryer and since the recycled air gets saturated with the essential oil in spices and aromatic plants, further loss of essential oil from the material being dried does not happen and the product retains its aroma. The multipurpose application of the model involves the processing of heat sensitive exotic spices like cardamom, saffron, nutmeg, and other agro products under adverse climatic conditions prevalent during the rainy season, when it is harvested. However, this model consumes more electricity in some cases eg: in the dehydration of fresh fruits, vegetables etc. having higher moisture & sugar content. Hence as an up gradation of the existing technology model, in the current proposal, we aim to integrate the dehumidified dryer with solar energy panels so that the energy cost can be reduced drastically and the usage of renewable energy resource can be utilized and promoted in commercial processing units. |