Industrial Innovations

PAU Farm Solar Dryer

PAU Farm solar dryer is a low cost large size natural circulation, integral, direct/indirect type solar dryer. Its aperture area is 3.34 m^2 and has seven trays arranged at different levels one above the other. It has better utilization of hot air due to arrangement of trays at different levels. It has movable glazing for easy loading /unloading of the product. The glazing is UV stabilized transparent plastic sheet. It has the provision to dry the product under shade or by exposing to direct solar radiation, as per requirement. It is portable and easy to assemble /dismantle. The stagnation temperature of 70-75 degree C while working temperature of the order of 50-70 degree centigrade has been recorded in this dryer. Normally 20-30 kg of product is loaded at a time, which gets dried to a moisture content of around 5-7% in 3-4 sunny days.

Area: Agricultural Sciences

Funding agency: Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India

Benefits: The innovation is an improved and low cost solar dryer.

Implementing institute: National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), Govt. of India

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