Modelling of a solar dryer for food preservation in developing countries

Abstract: Food insecurity has proven to be a significant problem in many developing countries, which in some cases occurs due to the lack of adequate methods of preserving foods for longer periods of time. Solar drying of foods could be a feasible method for preserving foods in developing countries. To maintain a good product quality, the design of the solar dryer used needs to be considered. A faulty design will result in the foods being exposed to either excessive heat, which will degrade nutrients such as Vitamin C, or exposed to insufficient heat which could result in growth of mold or bacteria. In this study a base scenario for a solar dryer design has been set up and mathematically analysed to find ways of improving the design and identifying the most important parameters to consider. The study will serve as a part of an ongoing project at Lund University in Sweden, which will be implemented Mozambique. The results of the study imply that the collector performance can be improved significantly if the most important parameters are optimized. For future work, more practical measurements would be required to verify the results, particularly regarding the evaporation rate of the drying products.