USING SOLAR ENERGY TO DRY EGYPTIAN CLOVER

Abd El-Mottaleb, A. F; Ebaid, M.T.; Hemeda, B. E.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2010.104818

USING SOLAR ENERGY TO DRY EGYPTIAN CLOVER

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Senior Res. Agr. Eng. Res. Inst., Agric. Res. Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2010.104818

Abstract

A solar dryer has been developed and tested for drying high moisture of clover crop (Trifolium alexandrinum) at the Food Technology Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center. The dryer used solar heated air passing by forced convection through a beds of green forage. Three beds were employed to investigate the effect of solar drying of clover on the final quality of hay in comparison with the natural drying method.
The obtained results showed that::
- Clover moisture content decreased from an initial level of 85.67 % (w.b.) to final level of about 12.86 % in 26 and 94 h. for the solar drying and natural sun drying method respectively. This means that solar drying method could reduce the required time for drying clover hay by about 72 % in comparison with sun drying method.
- The thermal efficiency of the dryer approached about 26 %.
- The chlorophyll A and B and carotenoid content of the solar dried clover were slightly higher for solar dried samples in comparison with sun dried samples. Meanwhile the percentage of crude protein, fiber content and ash content increased by 10.18, 3.22 and 4.8 % respectively.

Main Subjects

Processing Engineering of Agricultural Products

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