Experimental Studies on Drying Characteristics of Tomato in a Solar Tunnel Greenhouse Dryer

Abstract

A natural convection solar tunnel greenhouse dryer was designed and developed for studying the drying characteristics of tomatoes. Three experimental runs with 30 kgs of tomatoes were carried out in the dryer during the month of June 2014. The performance of the dryer was studied (drying time and product quality) in comparison with open sun drying method. It was found that the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer took only 29 hours for reducing the moisture content of tomatoes from 90% (w.b.) to 9% (w.b.) whereas the open sun drying took 74 hours for the same. Also, the quality of dried tomatoes produced from solar tunnel dryer are much superior compared to that of open sun drying. Index