• G. H. Funde
• V.P. Khambalkar
• P.A. Gawande
• K. S. Bhonde

The objective of this paper is to develop the solar tunnel dryers for drying of Shatavari roots and to evaluate its techno-economic performance. The solar tunnel dryers were used to dry Sahatavari roots by natural convection. Two solar tunnel dryers, one from polyethelene sheet (STD-PE) and second from PVC film (STD-PVC), were developed with the capacity of 500 kg and 300 kg respectively. The area of solar collector for STD-PE and STD-PVC were 49.847 m2 and 26.847m2 respectively. Shatavari roots were successfully dried in both the dryers simultaneously. It was observed that drying time was reduced in tunnel dryer with polyethelene sheet as compared to tunnel dryer with PVC film and open sun drying. The quantitative analysis showed that the traditional drying i.e., open sun drying took 7-10 days to dry Shatavari roots while the solar tunnel dryers took 4-5 days for the drying of Shatavari roots. Shatavari roots were dried from initial moisture content of 84% (wb) to 7% (wb) in STD-PE, 84% to 9% in STD-PVC and 84% to 11.34 % in OSD. An average saving in drying time for the two models of solar tunnel dryers was found to be 50 % as compared to OSD. The efficiency of STD-PE was found to be 17% whereas efficiency of STD-PVC was found to be 14.77%. On the basis of economic analysis payback period for STD-PE were found to be 10 months 27 days and for STD-PVC it was 7 months 23 days for Shatavari roots drying.

Solar tunnel dryer, Sahatavari roots, polyethelene sheet, PVC film, moisture content

"Development and Performance Evaluation of Large Capacity Solar Tunnel Dryers for Drying of Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus)", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 6, page no.g627-g637, June-2021, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2106904.pdf

"Development and Performance Evaluation of Large Capacity Solar Tunnel Dryers for Drying of Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus)", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 6, page no. ppg627-g637, June-2021, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2106904.pdf