SOLAR DRYING OF SLICED POTATOES. AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

The work presented in this paper was aimed to investigate an indirect solar dryer, locally designed and constructed, In order to adjust appropriate conditions for safe store of sliced potatoes. Throughout this study, by the mean of several experiments performed at Ouargla City in southern Saharan of Algeria. We searched to improve the performance of our solar drying system. An electrical resistance supplied by a variable number of photovoltaic panels was used to enhance the thermal efficiency. On the other hand, we tried to follow the impact of various controlling factors of hybrid solar drying on the quality of dried potato slices. Our present findings showed that the best operating conditions to ensure best efficiency, low duration time and higher product quality were selected as follows: 1- Hybrid drying (solar energy) with improving the delivery of solar panels, drying time and quality of the product. Used operating conditions were: air flow speed 0.51 m/s in duration of 2h 45min through the period between Mai 06th, 2012 and Mai 28th, 2012. 2- Hybrid drying (conventional electric power) using a maximum speed, performed at: 0.5 m/s in duration of 1 h 15min through the period between Mai 13th, 2012 to Mai 18th, 2012. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the TerraGreen Academy