Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 813–820

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Energy Conversion and Management

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Design and performance evaluation of a new hybrid solar dryer for banana
B.M.A. Amer a,*, M.A. Hossain b, K. Gottschalk c
a
Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
b
FMP Engineering Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur 1701, Bangladesh
c
Leibniz-Institut für Agrartechnik Potsdam-Bornim, 100 Max-Eyth-Allee, 14467 Potsdam, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A hybrid solar dryer was designed and constructed using direct solar energy and a heat exchanger. The
Received 9 July 2008 dryer consists of solar collector, reflector, heat exchanger cum heat storage unit and drying chamber.
Received in revised form 18 April 2009 The drying chamber was located under the collector. The dryer was operated during normal sunny days
Accepted 21 November 2009
as a solar dryer, and during cloudy day as a hybrid solar dryer. Drying was also carried out at night with
stored heat energy in water which was collected during the time of sun-shine and with electric heaters
located at water tank. The efficiency of the solar dryer was raised by recycling about 65% of the drying air
Keywords:
in the solar dryer and exhausting a small amount of it outside the dryer. Under Mid-European summer
Banana drying
Heat exchanger
conditions it can raise up the air temperature from 30 to 40 °C above the ambient temperature. The solar
Reflector dryer was tested for drying of ripe banana slices. The capacity of the dryer was to dry about 30 kg of
Solar dryer banana slices in 8 h in sunny day from an initial moisture content of 82% to the final moisture content
Storage energy of 18% (wb). In the same time it reduced to only 62% (wb) moisture content in open sun drying method.
The colour, aroma and texture of the solar dried products were better than the sun drying products.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction ity and better control, respectively. However, there exist some
problems associated with solar drying i.e. reliability of solar radia-
Sun drying of agricultural products is the traditional method tion during rainy period or cloudy days and its unavailability at
employed in most of the developing countries. Sun drying is used nighttime. In a hybrid solar dryer, drying is continued during off-
to denote the exposure of a commodity to direct solar radiation sunshine hours by back-up heat energy or storage heat energy.
and the convective power of the natural wind. Sun drying offers Therefore, drying is continued and the product is saved from pos-
a cheap method of drying but often results to inferior quality of sible deterioration by microbial infestation [7,8]. Variability and
products due to its dependence of weather conditions and vulner- time-dependent characteristic of solar radiation make storage nec-
ably to the attack of dust, dirts, rains, insects, pests, and microor- essary for continuous operations of food drying [9]. The operation
ganisms [1]. Solar drying is an alternative which offers several of a solar assisted dryer extended through the night hours and
advantages over the traditional method and it has been developed found that thermal storage during the day can be used as a heat
for various agricultural products. Solar energy for crop drying is source during the night for continuing drying of agricultural prod-
environmentally friendly and economically viable in the develop- ucts and also preventing their re-hydration from the surrounding
ing countries [2,3]. air [10–13]. Continuous drying also prevents microbial growth
In natural convection solar dryers, the air flow is due to buoy- during drying [14]. Also, it was found that storage and auxiliary
ancy-induced air pressure, and the drying process needs some days heat supply can used to assess compatibility of solar energy to
to complete, as a cabinet dryer needs 3–4 days to dry grapes [4]. meet the drying process temperature [15]. Misra et al. [16] re-
While in forced convection solar dryers the air flow is provided ported that the advantage of storing solar heat several weeks for
by using a fan either operated by electricity/solar module or fossil use in grain drying was to enable drying to proceed independently
fuel [5]. Some researchers are opting for forced convection solar of the fall weather conditions. This allowed management flexibility
tunnel drying for drying of various crops [6]. They reported that so- in harvesting and drying the crops. The major disadvantage was
lar drying for grapes during the night period, it is necessary to de- that it required more hardware, in the form of a large heat storage
velop a system having a back-up of thermal storage. An auxiliary structure and heat recovery equipment, which could lead to exces-
heat and forced convection are recommended for assuring reliabil- sive cost.
Some hybrid dryers were developed to control the drying air
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 2 23793704; fax: +20 2 35717355.
conditions throughout the drying time independent of sun-shine
E-mail address: baherbmaa@yahoo.com (B.M.A. Amer). especially at night when it is not possible to use the solar energy

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.11.016
814 B.M.A. Amer et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 813–820

Nomenclature

m_ mass flow rate (kg/s) f fan

A surface area (m2) g global
Cp specific heat (kJ/kg K) i inlet
hL latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kg) o outlet
I solar radiation (W/m2) p pump
Q amount of heat energy (kJ) n night time
t time (h) t total
T temperature (K) w water
g efficiency (decimal)

Subscripts
a air
c collector
d day time

using alternative sawdust burner, [17] or by using a biomass stove was high quality products in terms of flavour, colour and texture.
[18]. It is reported that significant improvement was registered Phoungchandang and Woods [29] developed mathematical model
after the heater is added to the solar dryer during periods of low for solar drying of whole banana in Thailand. The model agreed
sun-shine [19,20]. Tasmparlis [21] was found that using the hybrid well with the field data. Also, the drying time by these solar dryers
solar dryer connected by heating unit (20 kW) was reduced the for banana takes some days and it needs to reduce. In addition, the
drying time of the grapes to 30–40 h and the air velocity of quality of the dried bananas by the recent solar dryers is not high
0.8 m/s produced by fan was homogeneous but small, which re- depends on the non-stability for the drying air temperature during
sults in slow drying rates, hence large drying periods, also the qual- the drying process which causes by the variation of the solar inten-
ity for the dried fruits was very high. A solar assisted hybrid drier sity during the period of sun-shine. Finally, the efficiency of the re-
was developed in Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand for drying cent solar dryers not high and it needs to increase by using
of fruits and vegetables. The drier is a tunnel type and back-up en- movable reflectors to increase the solar radiation receiving
ergy was provided with biomass burning during off sun-shine per- capacity.
iod [22]. So, the of objective of this study was to design and test contin-
Banana (Musa sapientum L.) is one of the important tropical fruit uously the hybrid solar dryer (day and night) by storing the solar
in the world. The ripe fruit contains many of the necessary ele- energy in water tank during the sun-shine time to reduce the dry-
ments that are essential for a balanced diet. Banana contains fat, ing cost, improve the quality of the dried products, and to prevent
natural sugars, protein, potassium and vitamins A, B complex and the microbial growth during the drying.
C. A ripe banana easily digests and it imparts quick energy. Banana
can also be used as medicinal fruit. It can help recover anaemia, Table 1
Component and specifications of the hybrid solar dryer.
blood pressure, brain power, constipation, depression, hangovers,
ulcer, etc. [23]. Banana is a climacteric fruit with soft texture and Component Specifications
it becomes more vulnerable to be spoiled during transportation, 1. Solar collector
preservation and marketing. Due to high moisture content in bana- a. Type Flat plate
na, it is wounded and contaminated during handling and transpor- b. Area 5.04 m2
tation and quality is deteriorated at high temperature and relative c. Transparent Glass, 4 mm thick
surface
humidity. Both qualitative and quantitative losses occur during d. Absorber Plate Corrugate sheet-metal (280  180 cm), 2 mm thick
storage through loss of moisture, carbohydrates, vitamins, pest f. Collector tilt 0 (horizontal)
and disease and physiological disorders [24]. Dried banana is a g. Reflectors Brilliant aluminium (180  80 cm), 2 mm
popular food in many countries like Thailand. The postharvest thickness
h. Insulation Polystyrene 50 mm thick
losses can be minimized by drying the ripe banana. Therefore,
there is a scope of drying of banana in the tropical and subtropical 2. Water tank
a. Size 500 l
countries.
b. Insulation Made of fibre-glass, 50 mm thick
An analytical model was developed for drying of sliced apple,
3. Water pump
peaches, cherries and mango in a solar cabinet dryer and in open
Capacity 20 l/h
sun drying method [25]. They were used the heat and mass bal-
4. Counter heat exchanger
ance to help in designing a solar dryer, but without using it to
a. Type of tube Copper (70 tubes)
control the drying air conditions inside the dryer. Therefore, an b. Dimensions 180 cm length and 15 mm thick
improved and simplified model should be developed in this part
5. Drying chamber
of work. a. Area 5.04 m2
Several studies have been reported on simulation of forced con- b. Height 20 cm
vection solar drying of agricultural products for different configu- c. Insulation Polystyrene 50 mm thick
rations of forced convection solar dryers [26,27]. d. Tray 16 tray made of aluminium meshed, (90  70 cm)

Schirmer et al. [28] developed and tested a multi-purpose solar 6. Blower

tunnel dryer for drying of banana under hot and humid weather a. Type Axial
b. Capacity 0.75 kW
conditions in Thailand. The capacity of this dryer was to dry about
300 kg of whole (not slices) ripe banana in 3–5 days. The drying 7. Auxiliary Heater
Capacity 6 kW
temperature was 40–65 °C. They reported that solar dried banana
 B.M.A. Amer et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 813–820 815

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a solar hybrid dryer.

2. Description of the solar dryer 150 mm wheel to turn the solar collector horizontally and change
its direction according to the change of the sun’s angle. The metal-
A hybrid solar dryer was designed, constructed and tested at lic reflectors were closed in night and in adverse weather to pre-
Institut fur Agrartechnik Potsdam-Bornim, Germany during the vent heat loss through the glass during the drying process. The
period of 2005–2006. The solar dryer consisted with several parts: solar drying unit was insulated by 50 mm thick polystyrene.
solar collector, drying chamber, heat exchanger and heat storage There were three air controllers at the inlet, outlet, and just be-
unit. A schematic view of the solar dryer is shown in Fig. 1. The fore the suction opening of the air blower to control the air flow at
components and specifications of the hybrid solar dryer are given the inlet, outlet and mixed air. The three air controllers could be
in Table 1. controlled manually using three switches according to the quantity
and the velocity of air needed using a small motor fixed on each
controller. The motors can be opened or closed using a special elec-
3. The solar collector
tric key exists on an electric board fixed at the end of the solar dry-
ing unit. A schematic diagram of the air damper configuration is
The dimensions of the solar collector are 2.80 m  1.80 m. It
shown in Fig. 2.
consisted of transparent cover, absorber plate, heat exchanger
and insulation. The transparent cover is 4 mm thick clear glass sup-
ported by 60 mm wooden frame. Absorber plate is fixed below 4. The drying chamber
200 mm of glass cover. The absorber plate is 2 mm thick corru-
gated GI sheet painted in black. Solar radiation receiving capacity The length and width of the solar dryer were same as the collec-
was increased by providing the collector with three solar reflector tor (2.80 m  1.80 m). It was located directly under the solar col-
made of brilliant aluminium of size 1.80 m  1.80 m and 2 mm lector and 200 mm under the absorber plate. It was divided into
thick. The collector had variable angles that could be changed eight parts with equal dimensions. In each of the part there were
according to the change of the sun’s angle during the day to collect two trays for drying. This allows the usage of 16 drying trays in
higher amount of sun rays that fall down on the solar collector. In the drying unit. The drying air is passed across the fruits spread
addition, the collector was placed on six movable legs with in thin layers on 16 horizontally stacked trays and arranged in

Fig. 2. A schematic diagram of the air damper configuration.

816 B.M.A. Amer et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 813–820

two vertical columns. Each tray was made of wooden frame and adjusted with the solar angle so that maximum solar radiation
plastic net with dimensions of 900 mm  70 mm. The drying air can be captured by the solar collector as well as by the reflector.
was heated up in the solar collector and passed to the drying A data logger (Almeno 5590, Ahlborn Mess-und Regelungstechnik
chamber through a curved metal part at the end of the solar drying GmbH, Germany) was used to record the ambient air, collector
unit. This curved metallic part had a shape of a half horizontal cyl- air, drying air (on different trays), inlet air and outlet air tempera-
inder with the same width and height of the solar collector and the ture and relative humidities at 10 min interval. Temperatures at
dryer. Through this curved part, the direction of the air could be different positions of glass cover, copper tube, absorber plate of
changed inside the solar drying unit. The drying air came from the collector were also recorded at 10 min interval during the dry-
the solar collector through curved part to the opposite direction ing period, the position of instruments for measuring air properties
and turning towards the drying unit and flew over and under all (temperature & relative humidity) in the hybrid solar dryer are
the drying trays before exhausting from the outlet. To increase shown in Fig. 3. A solar meter (Solarwatt, GmbH, Germany) was
the efficiency of the solar drying unit, some parts of the hot air used to measure the global solar radiation and total radiation (glo-
was mixed with the fresh air at the end of the solar dryer and flew bal+reflected from reflector) during the day time drying period.
through the collector again to the solar drying unit instead of exit- Velocity of drying air was measured with an anemometer (TA-5,
ing through the outlet opening. Airflow Development Limited, England) at and when required.
The moisture content of the banana slices were measured by dry-
ing the samples in a vacuum oven at 70 °C until the weight of the
5. Cross-flow heat exchanger and heat storage unit
dried sample became stable, a according to AOAC [30]. After com-
pletion of drying, the dried banana samples were collected, cooled
The heat exchanger consisted of a 15 mm diameter copper
in a shade to the ambient temperature and then sealed it in the
tubes placed inside the solar collector, 100 mm below the glass
plastic bags.
and 100 mm above the absorber plate. The heat exchanger con-
sisted of 70 tubes covered the whole area of the drying collector.
These tubes were fixed and put over a metal holder of width 7. Efficiency calculation
20 mm at each side of the solar collector. Two ends of the copper
tubes were connected to the water storage tank with 15 mm plas- The thermal efficiency of the solar collector and system drying
tic tubes. The capacity of the water tank was 500 l. Water flew from efficiency of the solar dryer were calculated using following
water tank and circulated through the plastic and copper tubes by formula:
a small water pump of capacity 20 l/h. The heat exchanger gave a
part of the heat collected during the hours of the sun-shine, which (a) Collector efficiency during day time (when solar radiation
was carried by air inside the solar collector, to the water inside the was available):
copper tubes. The water passed very slowly inside the pipes to be
able to take the largest part of heat carried in the air contact with _ a C pa ðT i  T o Þ
m
the external surface of the tubes. This water was stored inside a
gcdg ¼ ð1Þ
Ac I g
plastic tank of 500 l volume and insulated by 50 mm fibre-glass.
The heat stored during the day in the water tank could be used
again at night. The temperature of this water could be raised by (b) Collector efficiency during night time:
using 6 kW water heaters located inside the tank to reach a desired
temperature for drying during the night as well as in adverse _ C ðT  T Þ
m
weather for maintaining the temperature and the humidity gcn ¼ _ a pa i o
ð2Þ
mw C w ðT w  T i Þ
throughout the drying process.

(c) System drying efficiency of the solar dryer:

6. Experimental procedure (i) Solar dryer efficiency in day time

Several experimental runs for different drying conditions for so-

lar and sun drying of banana were carried out at Leibniz Institut für mw hL
gdd ¼ ð3Þ
Agrartechnik Potsdam-Bornim (ATB) campus, Germany during the Ac I t t þ Q f þ Q p
period of June–October 2005 and 2006 (Mid-European summer
conditions). Fresh and uniform size of ripe banana was purchased (ii) Solar dryer efficiency in night time
from Potsdam supermarket. Before starting an experimental run,
the whole apparatus was operated for at least 1 h to stabilize the Drying with hot water flow without using water heater
air temperature and air velocity in the dryer.
Peeled bananas was cut into 4–5 mm slices with fruit slicer and mw hL
gnd ¼ ð4Þ
then placed them in single layer on the drying trays in the dryer. Qf þ Qp
Slice diameter was 2.9–3.1 cm and weight varied from 8.5 to
Drying with hot water flow without using water heater
11.5 g. The dryer was full loaded with 30–32 kg of banana slices.
To compare the performance of the dryer with that of sun drying, mw hL
control samples banana slices were placed on trays in a single layer
gnd ¼ ð5Þ
Qh þ Qf þ Qp
beside the dryer in the open sun. Drying was started after comple-
tion of the loading, usually at 09:00 h and discontinued up to reach
the final moisture content of banana slices. Weight loss of both the 8. Collector performance
samples in the solar dryer and the control samples in the open sun
were measured during the drying period in day time (09:00– 8.1. Day time heat collection without water flow
17:00 h) at 5 min interval with an electronic balance (BP 310S, Sar-
torius AG Göttingen, Germany) equipped with data logger. During The experiments were carried from June to October 2005 under
the day time, the positions of the collector and its reflector were Mid-European summer conditions with the ambient air temperature
 B.M.A. Amer et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 813–820 817

Sun Ig
Ig θ Reflector

Imaginary cover θ θ Ir β

Total energy (E)

2 Reflection to ambient 3
Convection to ambient Radiation to sky
Cover
Radiation to cover Reflection to cover Air out
1
Convection to air 6
Air in 5
4
Convection to air Δx
Receiver
Air out Drying chamber
9 7
11

10 8
Drying tray

Dryer floor

T1 – air properties at collector inlet

T2 - air properties at the cover of collector in one side
T3 - air properties at the cover of collector in the other side
T4 - air properties inside the collector in one side
T5 - air properties inside the collector in the other side
T6 - air properties at collector outlet/dryer inlet
T7 - air properties inside the dryer chamber (upper tray) in one side
T8 - air properties inside the dryer chamber (lower tray) in one side
T9 - air properties inside the dryer chamber (upper tray) in the other side
T10 - air properties inside the dryer chamber (lower tray) in the other side
T11 - air properties at dryer outlet

Fig. 3. Position of instruments for measuring air properties (temperature and relative humidity) in the hybrid solar dryer.

ranged from 15 to 30 °C. Variations of ambient temperature, absor-

ber temperature, collector air temperature with solar radiation
without heat collection by water flow in the collector during a typ-
ical sunny day is shown in Fig. 4. At the beginning of drying, collector
air temperature as well as absorber temperature increased with the
increase of solar radiation and it reached to a peak in the noon and
then decreased at slower rate in the afternoon with the decrease
of solar radiation. During this drying period average collector air
temperature was 54.31 °C which was 27 °C above the ambient tem-
perature. During this typical sunny day variation of collector thermal
efficiency with solar radiation is given in Fig. 5. Collector thermal
efficiency rose up to 75% at the peak solar radiation of about
700 W/m2. During the day time (09:00–18:00) average collector
thermal efficiency was 58.23%. This higher efficiency was found
due to the use of solar reflector.

8.2. Day time heat collection with water flow

When water flew in the collector from the water tank, then
water was heated along with the air in the collector and stored
in the water tank. By this way water temperature rose up and this
hot water was circulated again at night for heating the air in the Fig. 4. Variations of ambient temperature, absorber temperature, collector air
collector. Variation of air and water temperatures with solar temperature with solar radiation without heat collection by water flow in the
radiation for water flow in a typical sunny day is shown in Fig. 6. collector during a typical sunny day.
818 B.M.A. Amer et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 813–820

Fig. 5. Variation of collector thermal efficiency with solar radiation.

Fig. 7. Variations of air temperatures on different trays during solar drying of
banana.

Fig. 6. Variation of air and water temperatures with solar radiation for water flow
in a typical sunny day. Fig. 8. Variations of air and water temperatures with solar radiation in day and
night.
At the end of the day (afternoon) water temperature in the water
tank increased above 40 °C from initial morning temperature of
about 15 °C. In this drying system, collector and drying chamber solar dryer with the solar radiation for a typical day during the so-
temperatures were little lower than those of collector heating lar drying of banana slices are shown in Fig. 8. During the day time
without water flow but not below the desired temperature (40– (sun-shine hours) solar radiation was used to heat up the air in the
50 °C). collector as well as heated the circulated water in the collector. In
Variations of air temperatures on different trays are shown in afternoon (after 16:00 h) the intensity of solar radiation began to
Fig. 7. At the beginning of drying temperature was low and in- decrease and collector air as well as the drying chamber tempera-
creased slowly and then increased sharply with the increase of so- ture reduced. At 17:00 h, solar radiation reduced sharply and dry-
lar radiation. The reason might be that at the initial stage of drying, ing air temperature reduced to 35 °C. Then water heater was made
banana moisture content was high (about 82%, wb) and more on and water temperature in the storage tank was set at 70 °C. As a
moisture was evaporated from the banana surface. Due to evapo- result, water temperature rapidly heated up to 70 °C. This hot
rating cooling, the increase of drying air temperature was slow. water was circulated in collector and collector air and drying air
After 3 h of drying when free water was dried up from the banana temperatures rose again about 50 °C. Water heater was made on
surfaces then, temperature rose sharply. There was no significant up to next morning (09:00 h). At 09:00 h, intensity of solar radia-
different of temperatures among the trays but outlet air tempera- tion was increased and the water heater was made off. This proce-
ture was low due to the effect of outside cool environment. There dure was continued up to the end of the drying.
was a small temperature difference (max. 4 °C) for temperatures
measured at different locations inside the solar drying unit on
top, middle and bottom. This indicated uniform temperature distri- 9. Dryer performance
bution inside the present solar drying unit. Also, the temperature
difference was (max. 2 °C) between air outlet of the solar collector Fully loaded experiments were performed to check the capacity
and the air inside the drying chamber. of the dryer. A single layer of 4–5 mm thickness of banana slices
The variations of the ambient air temperature, water tempera- with initial moisture content 75–82% (wet basis) was used in this
ture, collector air temperature and the air temperature inside the study. It was found that the capacity of dryer was 30–32 kg of this
 B.M.A. Amer et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 813–820 819

Fig. 10. Comparison of solar and sun drying of banana slices in bad weather (with
auxiliary heating).

Fig. 9. Comparison of solar and sun drying of banana slices in sunny weather
(without water heating).

Table 2
Comparison of drying system efficiency.

Drying method Drying system

efficiency (%)
Only solar dryer without water heating 37.4
Heating before using solar dryer (morning) 31.7
Auxiliary heating without sun-shine (bad weather) 25.3
Heaters using a low intensity of solar radiation 6.4
(afternoon)

product. The system is worked as a solar dryer only, without heat-

ing, during the sun-shine, but with using the water as a storage
media for the heat during the time off the sun-shine. It was ob-
served that drying air temperature rose from 25 to 35 °C above
the ambient air and the drying time was about 10 h. The system Fig. 11. Comparison of drying of banana in present study with other investigators.
was worked as a solar dryer with a heating unit to heat up the
water inside the tank, during the time of night and it can rise the
drying air temperature from 25 to 35 °C above the ambient air A comparison of drying of banana of present study with other
and the drying time was about 8 h. When heaters were used during investigators is shown in Fig. 11. It is observed from the figure that
night time with a low intensity of solar radiation in the morning of drying rate of banana of present study is higher than the study
next day after sun-shine, drying time was extended to 26 h. To made by Soponnarit et al. [31] and Bhattacharya et al. [32].
achieve the high efficiency for this solar dryer comparing to the Soponnarit et al. [31] dried banana in a solar cabinet dryer at the
sun drying, a comparison of solar and sun drying of banana slices temperature of 60 °C and Bhattacharya et al. [32] dried banana in
in sunny weather (without water heating) is given in Fig. 9. For a solar-biomass hybrid drier at the temperature of 50–55 °C. Drying
drying time about 7 h, the moisture content of the banana slices time of present study, study by Soponnarit et al. [31] and Bhattach-
using the solar dryer was 0.2 kg/kg (db) and for the dried slices arya et al. [32] were 8, 10 and 12 h respectively. These variations of
by the sun drying was 0.6 kg/kg (db). In addition, a comparison drying rate may be due to varietal differences and maturity of ba-
of solar and sun drying of banana slices in bad weather (with aux- nana. Therefore, the drying performance of the dryer in this study
iliary heating) is given in Fig. 10. For a drying time about 27 h, the was found similar to other dryers.
moisture content of the banana slices using the solar dryer was
lower than the dried slices by the sun drying.
The drying system efficiency using different drying methods is 10. Conclusions
given in Table 2. Using only solar drying (without water heating)
in a sunny day, the drying system efficiency was found highest fol- The efficiency of the solar dryer could be raised by recycling
lowed by using water heater with a low intensity of solar radiation. about 65% the drying air again in the solar dryer. It was found that
The efficiency of the dryer when using only as a solar dryer was the best condition for collecting the solar energy during the day by
found 37.4%, whereas, it found 31.7% when heating water before the solar dryer is using the solar reflectors with holders to move it
the sun-shine and beginning the drying process by the solar dryer according to the sun angles during the day, and by turning the
only. Also, it was found that 25.3% efficiency for using an auxiliary dryer also according to the sun angles. Under Mid-European sum-
heating source (6 kW) for 8 h with the solar dryer when the weath- mer conditions it can raise up the air temperature between 30 and
er condition was bad. The efficiency was 36%, when it was using 40 °C above the ambient temperature. The solar dryer was tested
heaters during night with a low intensity of solar radiation before for drying of ripe banana slices. The capacity of the dryer was to
dark coming and in the next day after sun-shine, drying time was dry about 30 kg of banana slices in 8 h in sunny day from an initial
16 h. moisture content of 82% to the final moisture content of 18% (wb).
820 B.M.A. Amer et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 813–820

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