Development and Evaluation of Solar Tunnel Dryer for Commercial Fish Drying

The local practice of drying fish in open sun drying poses problems such as high moisture content, uncontrolled drying and contamination. These problems can be avoided by proper use of improved methods such as the solar tunnel dryer, which results in faster drying of fish. The semi cylindrical walk-in type natural convection solar tunnel dryer, having drying area of 37.5 m2 was developed and evaluated for the drying of fish products in comparison with the conventional method of open sun drying. The experiments were conducted without fish and with fish to evaluate the performance of solar tunnel dryer. The average rise in temperature inside the solar tunnel dryer was found to be 11.24 °C and 18.29 °C over the ambient temperature during no load test in winter and summer respectively. The average 28 % saving in time was observed for selected fish drying using solar tunnel dryer over open sun drying method with average drying efficiency of 19 %. The economics was calculated for drying of prawns (Parapaeneopsis stylifera) by solar tunnel dryer and open sun drying system on the basis of business as a whole. The economics of the solar tunnel dryer is presented in term of Net present worth, Benefit–Cost Ratio, Payback period, Profitability index and Internal rate of return. The pay back period for solar tunnel dryer was found to be 2.84 years. © 2014, The Institution of Engineers (India).