Performance of forced convection type solar drier with thermal storage for ginger drying

Thermal energy storage is one of the most efficient ways to store solar energy for heating air by energy collected from sun. An indirect forced convection solar drier with thermal storage has been developed and tested its performance for drying ginger under the metrological conditions of Udaipur, India. agricultural food materials can be dried at late evening, while late evening drying was not possible with a normal solar dryer. So that, solar dryer with storage unit is very beneficial for the humans and as well as for the energy conservation. The system consisted of a flat plate solar air collector, heat storage unit, a drying chamber and a DC fan. Drying experiments have been performed at an air flow rate of 0.0025 kg/s. Drying of ginger rhizomes in a forced convection solar drier reduces the moisture content from around 84 per cent (wet basis) to the final moisture content about 9.63 per cent in 36 h. Average drier efficiency was estimated to be about 30 per cent.