Qualitative performance and economic analysis of low cost solar fish driers in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Qualitative performance and economic analysis of five low cost solar driers were evaluated at the Zoology and Physics Laboratories of the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. The solar driers were constructed from mosquito net, plastic, aluminum and glass with black stone inserted in it. The driers were found to be better than the other driers because they are cheap, reliable, safe to use, easy to repair, well insulated, and cost effective. The solar driers are compact, efficient with drying of fish with lowest moisture content achieved within a few days and the dried products of good quality, with long shelf life, highly acceptable to consumers. The driers save man-hour, money, use renewable energy, with no operational or maintenance costs. The driers have a long life span, with net income to fisher folks very high and the payback time for the driers very low. The adoption of the driers will contribute to the economy of rural populace in the developing countries where there is no electricity and the challenges of deforestation are becoming prominent. The improved low cost solar driers will ensure food safety and security and assist in combating climate change resulting from burning of wood and fossil fuel.

Performance Assessment and Modeling Techniques for Domestic Solar Dryers

“…Sreekumar et al [ 77 ] calculated the annualized cost and net present worth of a cabinet type FCISD for the drying of bitter gourd as $11.86 and $408.23, respectively. Mustapha et al [ 89 ] used plastic, mosquito net, glass, aluminum, and glass with black pebbles in five different solar dryers for the drying of fish. The value of cost to benefit ratio varied from 2.5:1 to 4.5:1 for different dryers.…”

Between the Sun and Fish Are People: A Socio-economic Study of Solar Dryers for Fish Processing in Malawi

“…The improved fish smoking kilns used an estimated 30% less wood to smoke a given unit of fish than the traditional fish smoking methods. Furthermore, Mustapha et al (2014) argue that improved fish smoking kilns use over 50% less firewood than the traditional smoking methods. The availability of improved smoking kilns as well as solar tent dryers entails that fish can be processed at a lower cost, which benefits the FPs by making better profits, producing healthier products, as well as reducing the effects of fishing on the environment.…”

Physics-Based Digital Twin Identifies Trade-Offs Between Drying Time, Fruit Quality, and Energy Use for Solar Drying

“…This system requires electricity (Ouaabou et al, 2020) or heat provided by the combustion of fossil fuels (Smitabhindu et al, 2008;Murali et al, 2020) or biomass (Ait Hammou and Lacroix, 2006;Madhlopa and Ngwalo, 2007;Kiburi et al, 2020;Manrique et al, 2020). The analysis and control of the solar drying process are mainly based on the evaluation of drying kinetics, i.e., the mass loss over time and the remaining water activity of the product (Mustapha et al, 2014;Li et al, 2017). Limited information is found on how the drying strategies are controlled based on the current weather conditions.…”