Nasrat, L., Ghanem, T., Younis, O., Elmolakab, K., Tantawy, A. (2024). Design and Evaluation of a New Solar Dryer Equipped with Three Sides Flat Plate Collectors for Drying Tilapia Fish Fillets. Aswan University Journal of Environmental Studies, 5(3), 243-261. doi: 10.21608/aujes.2024.287163.1234
Loai S. Nasrat; Tarek Hussien M. Ghanem; Omar Shahat Younis; Khaled Muhammad Elmolakab; Aml Abubakr Tantawy. "Design and Evaluation of a New Solar Dryer Equipped with Three Sides Flat Plate Collectors for Drying Tilapia Fish Fillets". Aswan University Journal of Environmental Studies, 5, 3, 2024, 243-261. doi: 10.21608/aujes.2024.287163.1234
Nasrat, L., Ghanem, T., Younis, O., Elmolakab, K., Tantawy, A. (2024). 'Design and Evaluation of a New Solar Dryer Equipped with Three Sides Flat Plate Collectors for Drying Tilapia Fish Fillets', Aswan University Journal of Environmental Studies, 5(3), pp. 243-261. doi: 10.21608/aujes.2024.287163.1234
Nasrat, L., Ghanem, T., Younis, O., Elmolakab, K., Tantawy, A. Design and Evaluation of a New Solar Dryer Equipped with Three Sides Flat Plate Collectors for Drying Tilapia Fish Fillets. Aswan University Journal of Environmental Studies, 2024; 5(3): 243-261. doi: 10.21608/aujes.2024.287163.1234
Design and Evaluation of a New Solar Dryer Equipped with Three Sides Flat Plate Collectors for Drying Tilapia Fish Fillets
1Electrical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Aswan University, Aswan 81528, Egypt
2Agricultural products processing engineering department – Faculty of Agricultural engineering – Al Azhar University- Cairo Egypt
3Food Manufacturing Engineering and Packaging Department, Food Technology Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Giza, Egypt
4Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural resources, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt
5Food processing and technology department, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural resources, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt
Abstract
In the present work, a solar dryer was developed to maximize solar energy. The developed solar dryer was used for drying slated tilapia fish fillets. Three fish fillets with thicknesses of 4, 8, and 12 mm were dried using the developed solar dryer at an air speed of 0.5 m/s, and the obtained data were compared with the other samples dried in open air. The obtained results showed that the drying times required to achieve a final moisture content of approximately 18.08% were 16, 18, and 21 h and 30, 33, and 36 h for the solar drying system and the sun drying system for 4, 8, and 12 mm fillet thickness, respectively. As well, average drying rates and rehydration ratio were 8.038, 7.05, 6.06 gw/gdm.h, 62.47, 67.13, and 73.27% for solar drying, compared to 4.33, 4.09, and 3.87 gw/gdm.h and 0.96, 35.85, and 42.8% for sun drying fillets of 4, 8, and 12 mm fillet thickness, respectively. It was also observed that the efficiency of the solar dryer increased from 42.35%, 44.1%, and 46.14% at average monthly solar radiation of 700, 720, and 750 W/m2 in June, July, and August, respectively. Also, the obtained results indicate that the solar dryer method is more effective in reducing the number of bacteria, yeast, and mold when compared to the sun drying method. In addition, tilapia fish fillets dried using a solar dryer received an excellent general acceptance rating with regards to color and odor.