Abstract

This research includes the design and manufacture of a solar dryer and its performance test on bean. Solar dryer consists of three parts; 1) the air heating section (solar collector), 2) two fins and 3) the drying chamber section with four trays. The drying test was conducted after setting the drying air speed at 1.5 m/s at the drying chamber. The drying process continued until the total beans weight was (100 kg). The highest and the lowest solar collector efficiencies of 61.82 and 45.40% were obtained at 11.00 and 9.00 h, respectively. Higher moisture evaporating from the beans was achieved in the first tray, as moisture content was reduced from 60 to 8% during the 6 h compared with the other three trays.

Key words: Solar dryer, broad–bean, performance, temperature distribution.