PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SOLAR GREENHOUSE DRYER FOR DRYING HERBALS

Abstract

A solar greenhouse dryer is specially designed for drying herbals. The designed system is efficient because, the energy is trapped in greenhouse system thus maintains high temperature and leads to drying of herbals in an efficient and quickly manner. The theoretical calculations of greenhouse solar dryer is calculated by using various parameters such as solar intensity, mass flow rate, slope angle of the dryer for two different areas (CASE-I 2m² and CASE-II 0.5m²) of greenhouse dryer. And suggested the experimental setup to be fabricated for CASE-II and conducted the performance test for measuring the moisture removal time, temperature variations, heat gain and effectiveness. To improve the life time of herbals storage without changing its aroma, colour, volatile content, etc by using solar greenhouse dryer.