Sample Size and Color Effects on the Performance of a Mobile Solar Dehydrator

• Published in: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering
• Main Author: Halidi S.N.A.M.; Zainudin M.; Shaari N.S.; Abdullah N.S.; Rosli A.A.A.
• Format: Conference paper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85196653227&doi=10.1007%2f978-981-97-0106-3_69&partnerID=40&md5=2e1ae9315792402ea120799a9a860eb5

The ever-growing food demand in the recent years due to population growth and climate change has forced the population to experience food shortages. With various method can be implemented to preserve foods, hence reducing food shortages, some of these methods may be futile in areas with lesser economic growth. The usage of solarSolar drying for food preservation in these parts of the world are much more feasible than other methods employed. This paper seeks to summarize the various parameters that can affect the effectiveness of the solarSolardehydratorDehydrator in terms of moisture loss and temperature difference. The parameters discussed includes slicing size effect or specimen thickness, drying tray color, and dehydratorDehydrator wall color. The experimental setup is like that of a previous study mentioned in this paper. Slicing size of 3 mm proved to have the most moisture loss at a maximum of 84.15% when being dried for 8 h when compared with 5 and 7 mm slicing size. When comparing tray colors, white aluminum tray presents with the highest moisture loss at 86.4% when used. As for dehydratorDehydrator walls, using transparent wall colors are much preferable than black and yellow walls as the amount of sunlight penetrated is much prevalent than colored walled solarSolardehydratorDehydrator. The conclusions drawn from these data would give a much sound insight on designing the optimal mobile solarSolardehydratorDehydrator. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.