A Greenhouse Solar Dryer for Tomato Paste Production in Iraqi Rural Region

Tomato fruit is a source of many important nutrients.It is difficult to store it for a long time because it contains a high percentage of moisture.The moisture content could be reduced in different ways to restrict the high growth of fungi.This study mainly aims to manufacture a simple and easy-to-use solar dryer for drying tomato fruits with solar cellbased fans.This method can be adapted to dry a wide range of Vegetables and fruits.The measured factors in this study are solar radiation, ambient temperature, relative humidity, and drying time.Solar drying is an affordable method to soothe the negative impact of post harvest losses on cultivators in Iraq.A greenhouse dryer (1 0.5 0.5 m) was constructed using glass of ( = 0.9 for 0.4 m < < 0.7 m and = 0.01 for > 0.7 m).Two fans are used to force an airstream with an average velocity of 0.025 m/s at the tray section.A selected quantity of tomato was washed and ground, making 1 kg of puree to check the effectiveness of the dryer.An experiment conducted on 10-11 March 2023 showed that 14 drying hours are needed to bring the paste to an acceptable quality of 0.25 brix.The efficiency of the greenhouse has not exceeded 25% on average, accompanied by an average drying rate of 60 g/hr.It was found that converting the perishable tomato crop into paste is profitable for cultivators in Iraqi conditions.Using a solar dryer is particularly profitable for local farmers by reducing crop losses, as per 1 m 2 land area, a production of 6 kg of tomatoes is expected with losses of about 1 kg, and a profit of 6 thousand IQD and losses of 1 thousand IQD.A land area of 1 m 2 with a dryer produces 3.6 kg of tomatoes converted into 1.008 kg tomato paste producing 15 thousand IQD without losses.