Experimental Investigation of Ginger Drying Using a Forced Convection Mixed Mode Solar Dryer With Thermal Energy Storage

This paper presents the design and fabrication details of a solar dryer with thermal storage, specifically a forced convection, mixed mode type. The study focuses on the drying behavior of ginger, considering various shapes and sizes of samples, namely sliced and lumped ginger. The initial moisture content of the ginger samples was 89% (wet basis), which was reduced to 0.5-0.8% (wet basis) during the drying process. The weights of the samples decreased from 350 g to 38 g and 40.12 g in the solar cabinet and open sun drying, respectively. The drying times reported were 15 hours for sliced ginger and 48 hours for lumped ginger in the solar cabinet dryer, while 18 hours and 120 hours were observed for sliced and lumped ginger in open sun drying, respectively. The temperature inside the dryer ranged from 40°C to 58°C, while the ambient temperature varied between 30°C and 35°C.