Performative Improvement of Solar-Biomass Hybrid Dryer for Fish Drying

Abstract

The solar–biomass hybrid dryer had been developed, and recently its design was improved. The dryer was basically UV12% plastic house, equipped with a drying chamber with the trays inside, two heat collector, a furnace embedded in a heat exchanger and a chimney. The objective of this study was to investigate the performance of the dryer after the design was improved by testing it for fish drying with different modes of energy supply i.e: solar energy (SE), biomass energy (BE), solar energy followed by biomass energy (SEBE), and simultaneous solar energy and biomass energy (SEBES). Coconut shell was used as the biomass energy source, and “Bleberanâ€fish (Pepetak Leiognatus spp.) was employed as the experimental commodity. SE mode generated the average drying air temperature 10.6^oC higher than that of ambient air and the average drying air relative humidity 21.9% lower than that of ambient air, and completed the drying process in 16.6 hours compared to 23.3 hours needed to finish the drying process for the sun drying. Operating with 3 kg fuel first supply and 1.5 kg fuel subsequent supplies per 20 minutes, BE mode produced the average drying air temperature 28.2^oC higher than that of ambient air and the average drying air relative humidity 44.7% lower than that of ambient air, and the drying process was completed in 8.6 hours with the fuel consumption of 0.375 kg biomass per kg wet fish. In SEBE mode with the same fuel supplies as BE mode, the average drying air temperature was 27,7^oC higher than that of ambient air, and the average drying air relative humidity was 45% lower than that of ambient air, and the drying process was completed in 13.4 hours with the fuel consumption of 0.19 kg biomass per kg wet fish. For SEBES mode with 3 kg fuel first supply and 1 kg fuel subsequent supplies, the average drying air temperature was 25.6^oC higher than that of ambient air, the average drying air relative humidity was 43.9% lower than that of ambient air, and the dryer finished the drying process in 9.1 hours and consumed 0.29 kg biomass per kg wet fish. The uniqueness of the dryer was manifested by its shape, the heat exchanger and electricity free.