Study of Drying Characteristics of Turmeric Slices in Solar-Biomass Hybrid Drying System

A study was conducted for evaluation of solar-biomass and hybrid drying system for turmeric slice drying. The turmeric slices were dried in month of January. The experiment was concluded that the drying of turmeric slices of 3 mm thickness took 10 hours for drying on an average insolation rate of 1158 W/m². The temperature inside the dryer was higher near to heat exchanger and decreased as tray placed far away from heat exchanger. The thermal inertia of solar-biomass hybrid dryer was broken within 1.250 hrs. The full load performance was carried out with the same loading rate i.e. 67.42 kg per batch and dryer had 24 trays each tray containing 2.760 kg turmeric slice. The drying operation batch was completed in 8 hrs in day. The maximum temperature achieved inside the dryer was 55oC at 10 % relative humidity and 1158 W/m2 solar insolation. For drying of turmeric slices, initial moisture content 71.41% (w.b) and operation were stop at 0.2% (w.b.) moisture content. The maximum turmeric drying rate in solar-biomass hybrid drying system was observed 0.150 kg/hr at 13.00 hrs. The maximum drying efficiency of turmeric slice in solar-biomass hybrid drying system was recorded as 37.03%.