Solar Dryer for Banana Chips: Design, Drying Kinetics, Quality, and Energy Performance

Abstract

A single-stage experimental study and modelling exercise was conducted to evaluate a small-scale solar dryer for producing banana chips. The dryer was designed as a forced-convection, cabinet-type solar dryer with a 1 m² glazed collector and a 0.5 m³ insulated drying cabinet. Fresh Cavendish banana slices (3 mm thickness) were dried from an initial moisture content of 0.65 (w.b.) to a final moisture of 0.0436 (w.b.) over 360 minutes under clear-sky conditions. Drying data were fitted to the Page thin-layer drying model, giving fitted parameters k = 0.00450 and n = 1.120 (95% CI reported in text). The product retained acceptable sensory and proximate-quality characteristics. The calculated thermal efficiency (evaporative energy/solar input) for the experimental run was ~19.3%. The paper reports the dryer design, experimental method, drying kinetics, energy performance calculations, quality analyses, and recommendations for scale-up.