Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of Solar Tunnel Dryer for Ginger Drying

Table 1

Design conditions and assumptions for the design of the dryer.

Items	Conditions and assumptions
Location	11°3336N, 37°2212E, and 1770 m height
Orientation	Southwards direction (0° to 60°)
Product	Ginger (Zingiber officinale)
Loading capacity	8 kg per time
Initial moisture content (%)	90.4
Final moisture content (%)	11.8
Latent heat of vaporization	2369.49 kJ/kg at 55.5°C
Total solar hours	8 hours
Drying period required	16-24 hours
Dryer efficiency (%)	31.6
Length of solar tunnel dryer	8.5 m
Width of solar tunnel dryer	2.0 m
Height of solar tunnel dryer	47 cm
Area of solar collector	6 m^2
Area of the drying chamber	11m^2
The total area of the dryer	17m^2