PROJECT
BY
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EE/2017/167
SUBMITTED TO
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING FACULTY OF ENGINEERING CARITAS UNIVERSITY, AMORJI-NIKE, ENUGU.
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING (B.ENG)
APPROVAL PAGE
This project has been read and approved by the undersigned as with the requirement at the department of Electrical Electronic Engineering of Caritas University Amorji Nike Enugu for the award of Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) in Electrical Electronic Engineering.
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Engr. Ejimorfor Date
(Project supervisor)
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Engr. Ejimofor Date
(Head of Department)
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External Supervisor Date
DECLARATION
I declare that this project material is an original work done by me under the supervision of Engr. Ejimorfor, department of electrical electronic engineering faculty of engineering caritas university, amorji-nike, enugu
DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to Almighty God and to my parents Engr. & Mrs. Chukwu A. Orioha and to my beloved brothers and sisters whose ever loving kindness and support has seen me through my years of studies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to express my immense gratitude to God Almighty for his mercy, guidance and protection towards me for seeing me through the rigors of this work. I am greatly indebted to my supervisor Engr. Ejimofor for his kind gesture and whose critics lead to the achievement of this work. I also will remain grateful to the tremendous contribution of my lecturers Engr. Ojobor (the Dean of Engineering Faculty), Engr. Ejimofor (Head of Electrical Electronic Engineering Department), Engr. Mbah, Engr. Ochi, and all the staff of Electrical Electronic Engineering both academic and non academic staff for their intellectual upbringing. My special appreciation goes to my loving parents Engr. & Mrs. Chukwu A. Orioha, my grandparent, my uncles and aunties, my brothers and sisters whose moral and financial support cannot be over emphasized. Also my sincere gratitude and special regards to my friends too many to mention whose encouragement also lead to the success of this work.
The solar drying system utilizes solar energy to heat up air and to dry any food substance loaded, which is not only beneficial in that it reduces wastage of agricultural produce and helps in preservation of agricultural produce, but it also makes transportation of such dried produce easy and promotes the health and welfare of the people. This paper presents the design and construction of a domestic passive solar food dryer. The dryer is composed of solar collector (air heater) and a solar drying chamber containing rack of four cheese cloth (net) trays both being integrated together. The air allowed in through air inlet is heated up in the solar collector and channeled through the drying chamber where it is utilized in drying (removing the moisture content from the food substance or agricultural produce loaded). The design was based on the geographical location which is Abeokuta and meteorological data were obtained for proper design specification. Locally available materials were used for the construction, chiefly comprising of wood (gmelina), polyurethane glass, mild steel metal sheet and net cloth for the trays.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Drying is an excellent way to preserve food and solar food dryers are appropriate food preservation technology for sustainable development [1]. Drying was probably the first ever food preserving method used by man, even before cooking. It involves the removal of moisture from agricultural produce so as to provide a product that can be safely stored for longer period of time.
“Sun drying” is the earliest method of drying farm produce ever known to man and it involves simply laying the agricultural products in the sun on mats, roofs or drying floors. This has several disadvantages since the farm produce are laid in the open sky and there is greater risk of spoilage due to adverse climatic conditions like rain, wind, moist and dust, loss of produce to birds, insects and rodents (pests); totally dependent on good weather and very slow drying rate with danger of mould growth thereby causing deterioration and decomposition of the produce. The process also requires large area of land, takes time and highly labour intensive [2].
With cultural and industrial development, artificial mechanical drying came into practice, but this process is highly energy intensive and expensive which ultimately increases product cost [2]. Recently, efforts to improve “sun drying” have led to “solar drying”.
In solar drying, solar dryers are specialized devices that control the drying process and protect agricultural produce from damage by insect pests, dust and rain. In comparison to natural “sun drying”, solar dryers generate higher temperatures, lower relative humidity, lower product moisture content and reduced spoilage during the drying process. In addition, it takes up less space, takes less time and relatively inexpensive compared to artificial mechanical drying method. Thus, solar drying is a better alternative solution to all the drawbacks of natural drying and artificial mechanical drying [2].
The solar dryer can be seen as one of the solutions to the world’s food and energy crises. With drying, most agricultural produce can be preserved and this can be achieved more efficiently through the use of solar dryers.
- BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
Drying is one of the oldest methods using solar energy where the product such as vegetables, fruits, fish, and meat are to be dried by exposing directly to the sun. It is a simple process of removing the moisture contents from a natural or industrial product in order to reach the standard specification. This method is economical on a large scale drying because of cheaper operating costs compared to the drying machine.
However, this method has many disadvantages such as spoilt products due to rain, wind, dust, insect infestation, animal attack and fungi. Because of that, the solar dryer technology will become an alternative method which can process the products in clean, safe, hygienic and produce better quality and more nutritious foods. In general, this solar dryer has saved energy, labor intensive, time, less area for spreading the product to dry, makes the process more efficient and protects the environment.
Solar dryer can be classified by three types that is direct, indirect and mixed mode which it is according to the passive mode of drying, whether the product to be dried is exposed or not. The active solar dryer, auxiliary energy is necessary to operate the system. However, in the mixed mode solar dryer, it consists of both radiation with conduction of heat through the transparent cover and the convection of the heat from the solar air heater.
Food materials and crops are very sensitive to the drying conditions. Very short duration with high speed drying would caused a quality of dried product will be reduced due to over or under dry. Thus the selection of drying temperature is o ne of the most important thing to ensure the color, texture, flavor and value of the product will not degrade (Devahast, undated). Thereby, a new design of high efficiency solar dryer for small scale food was designed and tested for several products such as fruits and fish. Drying result obtained were compared with the result of the naturally direct sun-dried product.
1.2 AIM OF THE PROJECT
The objective of this study is to develop a passive solar dryer in which the grains are dried simultaneously by both direct radiation through the transparent walls and roof of the cabinet and by the heated air from the solar collector.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
There are two main objectives to achieve in this research which are:
- To study a charateristics and performance of the solar dryer system.
- To develop a solar dryer system for food drying.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
A solar dryer is another application of solar energy, used immensely in the food and agriculture industry. Though sun is still used as the direct source for drying food items and clothes in certain parts of the world. An indirect source of solar power can also be used for the same purpose in the form of a solar dryer.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
the solar dryer is design and constructed with the consideration of overcoming the limitations of direct and indirect type of solar dryer. So therefore, this work will be based on the importance of a solar dryer which is reliable and economically. The objectives of the work is to design and construct a solar dryer using locally available materials and to evaluate the performance of the solar dryer.
1.6 PROBLEM OF THE PROJECT
The main problem of drying directly under the sun is contamination – dirt, animals, insects etc. Also there is a fear of sudden change in weather conditions like wind or rain.
1.7 APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT
Solar dryers are a very useful device for:
§ Agricultural crop drying.
§ Food processing industries for dehydration of fruits and vegetables.
§ Fish and meat drying.
§ Dairy industries for production of milk powder.
§ Seasoning of wood and timber.
§ Textile industries for drying of textile materials, etc.
Thus, the solar dryer is one of the many ways of making use of solar energy efficiently in meeting man’s demand for energy and food supply.
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