Eventos Anais de eventos
ENCIT 2016
16th Brazilian Congress of Thermal Sciences and Engineering
PERFORMANCE EVALUTATION OF A DRYING EQUIPMENT OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES FOR FAMILY FARMERS USERS
Submission Author:
Leonardo Manetti , MS
Co-Authors:
Fabiano Pagliosa Branco, João Augusto de Mamann Felipe, Marney Pascoly Cereda
Presenter: Leonardo Manetti
doi://10.26678/ABCM.ENCIT2016.CIT2016-0261
Abstract
In Brazil, agribusiness is a strong component of development, but the rural population is unable to use or store your entire production of fresh fruits and vegetables which causes post-harvest losses of more than 50%. Process would be a possibility of reducing losses but the availability of small equipment is reduced because big companies have no interest in developing them. A team of engineers met their specialties to establish as objetive the evaluation of the efficiency of an equipment for vegetable drying, but small capacity. To adapt it to users in rural areas the design was a simple design equipment. The performance evaluation was done by drying 1000g of sliced eggplant. Measurements of temperature were made and the sections evaluated include the dryer external surface, the trays, exhaust air, drying air and ambient air. The drying air speed and the total drying time were also measured. The results allowed concluding that the dryer of fruits and vegetables has a low energy efficiency. However, simple adjustments such as replacing the exhaust system and the addition of proper insulation can greatly improve the equipment efficiency.
Keywords
drying, fruit preservation, energy efficiency
