Paper Title
The Development Of A Solar Tunnel Dryer For Agriculture Produce Drying For Use In The Community Household Under The Philosophy Of Sufficiency Economy
Abstract
In this study, a solar tunnel dryer has been developed by integrating a biomass gasifier as an assisting heat source for drying agriculture produce and its performance analysis has been investigated. Experimental study has been carried out with the stand-alone solar tunnel dryer and the dryer with the assisted biomass gasifier. Three types of dried produces, fruit, leaves and wood stick, which are sliced banana, Kaffir lime leaves and Acacia wood sticks are samples for testing. For thermal performance analysis, for banana, the dryer with assisted gasifier gave an average efficiency of 32.86% higher and the drying period was 31.45 % shorter than those of the unit without the gasifier. For kaffir lime leaves, and for acacia wood stick, the values are 21.49 %, 28.68 % and 33.17%, 24.54 %, respectively. From economic analysis, drying of kaffir lime leaves is the most appropriated. The payback and the IRR were 1.8 years and 55.48 %, respectively. While those for banana drying were 2.74 years and 36%, respectively. For acacia wood drying, the cost was not effective due to the wood stick cost was still high. So this technique will be suitable if the dried wood will be used for wood costly.
Keywords- Tunnel Dryer, Solar Dryer