A Study and Development of Solar Hybrid Energy Oven

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to design and develope solar hybrid oven for common usage heat energy between sunshine and heater. The technology improvement of integrated solar dryer cabinet aims to prove that the solar energy for thermal purpose is the most useful alternative device for energy conservation which helps environment and pollution protection. It can also be an effective equipment for industrial drying process of herbal plants and products in term of dehydration, humidity reduction and fungus termination. The use of solar dryer cabinet can serve the high demand in the market of Thai herbal products which some of which are also used as detoxification. Solar Hybrid Energy Oven choose between infrared heater and DC heater. The outer structure of solar drying cabinet is made of aluminum sheet of 60 cm. wide, 60 cm. long and 80 cm. high. The inner box is coated with black paint. The experimental process and data collection of solar radiation was carried out for 15 days. The humidity value measurement was conducted during a 5-hour drying process with data collection at every 20 minutes. The herbal plants used in the experiment are lemongrass, pandanus, citrus hystrix leaf, red paprika and gotu kola. The data collection hours are from 10.00 am to 15.00 pm and the finding shows that the highest temperature in the cabinet reaches 99 degree Celsius . The fastest dehydrated and dried plant is pandanus whose initial humidity value is 589.6 % dry basis and humidity mean after drying process is 3.4 % dry basis. Lemongrass contains the second highest initial humidity value which is 566.6 % and humidity mean after drying process is 3.3 % dry basis .This indication confirms that the technology of solar energy combined with infrared heater can most effectively generate the heat in the cabinet to serve the drying process.