Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

COMPARISON OF CONVENTIONAL AND SOLAR HYBRID DRYING FOR DRYING KINETICS OF TURMERIC

Gurnaz Singh Gill and Tarsem Chand Mittal

Abstract

Study was conducted to compare the conventional and solar hybrid drying for the drying kinetics of turmeric. The conventional drying was done in open sun, improved sun drying and mechanical drying. The solar hybrid drying included four combinations viz., solar drying with electrical backup with and without insulation and solar and electrical drying independently. Fitting of drying models viz., Newton model and Page model was done on the moisture ratio data and Page model was found best fit. The Page model was found to be best fit in solar drying without backup in solar hybrid drying with R2 value of 0.967 whereas, in conventional drying it was found best fit in Improved drying of sliced samples with R2 value of 0.9971. The sliced samples lost moisture rapidly as compared to whole rhizomes and had higher drying rates. In solar hybrid drying maximum drying rates were observed in solar drying with electrical backup as compared to solar drying without backup.