Design and Development of Solar-biogas Hybrid Dryer for Onion Drying

ABSTRACT

A solar-biogas hybrid dryer was designed, developed and tested for onion drying with a capacity of 8 kg/batch. Solar energy was utilized as primary energy for onion drying in a greenhouse type drying chamber (direct solar) and biogas powered air heater used as a supplementary heat source for continuous operation. The hybrid dryer consists of greenhouse type drying chamber, concentric pipe air heater and biogas burner. The greenhouse type drying chamber has floor area of 1300 mm×900 mm and collector area of 3 m2. The dryer was operated as a solar dryer during normal sunny day and hybrid mode whenever sunlight is insufficient to maintain desired 60°C inside the drying chamber. The results indicated that the moisture content of onion slices reduced from 80.06% (wb) to 9.88% (wb) in 12 hours in hybrid mode drying. A biogas powered air heater operated for 3 hours in a day with effectiveness of 0.87 and biogas burner efficiency of 47.59%. The dryer was techno-economically feasible with a benefit cost ratio of 1.12 and payback period of 2.1 years.