Experimental Investigation of Drying Potato for Karaikal Climatic Condition

Abstract

Vegetables play an important and irreplaceable role in the human beings daily life and other living animals on the planet. Henceforth, wastage of vegetables should be kept away by developing techniques for conservation and preservation of vegetables to an extended period. In this article, a double slope solar dryer was designed and fabricated at the terrace of the science block, NIT Puducherry, Karaikal. The decrease in the wetness content of specimens in the double slope solar dryer was empirically inspected for Karaikal climatic conditions. The effect of double slope natural convective based solar dryer in drying of potato compared with open sun drying operation adjacent each other in similar condition. Experiments were carried out to determine the dryer surface temperatures, air temperature, and the percentages of the wet basis wetness content from 11.00 am to 6.00 pm for two days. In the investigation, it was clear that designed and fabricated double slope natural convective solar powered dryer removed the high wetness content about 52.29% and in open drying technique it removed wetness content of 42.99% from the potato slices on first day. On second day similar weighted samples were investigated wetness removed by solar dryer is 51% and 43.92% in open drying. So developed solar dryer removed high amount wetness content and quality of dried potato slices was high when compared to open sun dehydrating. Accordingly, the developed double slope natural convective based solar dryer can be effectively utilized to dry the vegetable samples.