Performance of the Rack Type-Greenhouse Effect Solar Dryer for Wild Ginger (Curcuma xanthorizza Roxb.) Drying

Drying is the important process to produce wild ginger powder as herbal medicine. Conventional drying of wild ginger under the sun depends to weather and potencies to contaminate by pollutant. Therefore the objective of study is to obtain the performance of Greenhouse-effect solar dryer - rack type to dried wild ginger. Three conditions of drying experiment were carried out to obtain the performance of the dryer; without-product and using product at two different capacities. The best of drying performance is the drying of 60 kg slice wild ginger at 47.2 degrees C for 30 hours represented by drying efficiency of 8 % and total energy consumption of 29 MJ/kg vapor. The uniform heat air flow is achieved at temperature standard deviation of 2.32 degrees C. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.