Investigation of an indirect type multi-shelf solar fruit and vegetable dryer

Design details and the performance studies carried out with indirect type multi-shelf fruit and vegetable dryer, are reported. The system investigated comprised plastic covered flat plate collector, drying box, and thermally and acoustically insulated pipes, joining the two. Experimental results for drying a variety of fruits with and without chemical pretreatment and under different drying conditions have been analysed. In drying the fruits it has been observed experimentally that use of chemical pretreatment offers not only a significant increase in drying rate but also higher dryer efficiency with better quality dried end product.