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Research Paper: PHdPostharvest Technology

Experimental performance of a solar tunnel dryer for drying silkworm pupae

Tawon Usuba, Charoenporn Lertsatitthanakorna,*, Nattapol Poomsa-ada, Lamul Wiseta, Lifeng Yangb, Sirithon Siriamornpunb
a b

Faculty of Engineering, Mahasarakham University, Khantarawichai, Mahasarakham 44150, Thailand Department of Food Technology and Nutrition, Faculty of Technology, Mahasarakham University, Muang, Mahasarakham 44000, Thailand

article info
The objective of this study was to conduct an experimental analysis to investigate the Article history: Received 8 November 2007 Received in revised form 30 May 2008 Accepted 18 June 2008 Published online performance of a mixed mode type forced convection solar tunnel dryer (STD) which was used to dry silkworm pupae under tropical weather conditions of Mahasarakham, Thailand. The dryer consisted of a transparent glass covered at-plate collector and a drying tunnel connected in series to supply hot air directly into the drying tunnel using a blower. The dryer was 6.2 m long and 1.8 m wide. The drying unit had a loading capacity of 30 kg of silkworm pupae. The effect of the drying air ow rate was examined. The drying time depended on the drying air ow rate and temperature. Moisture content of the silkworm pupae was reduced from 3.70 kg H2O kg1 dry matter to 0.20 kg H2O kg1 dry matter in 570 min at the corresponding air ow rate of 0.30 kg s1 and it took 945 min in open sun drying; drying time was reduced by about 40%. A quality assessment shows that the lipid content of the dried silkworm pupae was not affected by the STD. A slight decrease of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) was observed. Maximum drying and overall efciencies were 30.14% and 19.68%, respectively, at the air ow rate of 0.30 kg s1. The economic analysis indicates that the payback period is 1.42 years. Due to its simplicity, the proposed system is relatively inexpensive. Therefore, commercial application seems to be viable. 2008 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1.

Introduction

Thailands economy is strengthened by the countrys silk industry; it is well known for its silk fabrics and other ne silk products. During the period of 19972001, the average annual value of the export of silk products was about 1038.8 million Baht (33 Baht z 1 US$) (Lertsatitthanakorn et al., 2006). In the silk producing process, when harvested cocoons are properly stored, the pupae inside metamorphose into moths. The moths tear the cocoon when emerging. To avoid the

tearing, the cocoons, meant for reeling silk yarn, need to be treated in such a way that the pupae inside the cocoons are killed at a particular time (Aruga, 1994). Typically cocoons are boiled in hot water to kill the pupae and remove sericine (Protein) that coats the silk yarn. After reeling the silk yarn, the remaining dead pupae have numerous constituents of great value. The fat alone is about 30% of the total dry weight; they are rich in protein (5560% crude protein) and have a very high nutritive value. However, the dead pupaes high water content is a drawback; it causes rapid decomposition to occur

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: freeconvect@hotmail.com (C. Lertsatitthanakorn). 1537-5110/$ see front matter 2008 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2008.06.011

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Nomenclature Acollector collector area, m2 Adryer dryer area, m2 B annual net undiscounted benets specic heat of air, J kg1 K1 Cpa Efan Energy consumed by the fan, MJ i interest rate, % I solar intensity on horizontal surface, W m2 IAcollector solar energy input on the collector, MJ IAdryer solar energy input on the dryer, MJ J initial investment cost of the solar dryer, Baht latent heat of vaporization, J kg1 Lv _ m mass air ow rate, kg s1 mr moisture removed, kg nal moisture content, kg H2O kg1 dry matter Mf initial moisture content, kg H2O kg1 dry matter Mo moisture content at any time, kg H2O kg1 dry Mt matter n payback period, years power of the fan, kW Pf Sr(t) solar radiation at time t, W m2 t time, s Tr(t) air temperature rise at the outlet of the collector,  C weight of dry matter, kg Wd initial weight of sample, kg Wo

with emissions of a foul smell. Dried silkworm pupae are used as an ingredient in snack food. A solar drying system as described herein maintains the dead pupaes high value components and could become the most effective way of eliminating the high water content and rapid decomposition. Drying is the oldest preservative technique for agricultural products. In developing countries, traditional sun drying is commonly used for drying agricultural products. Although it is the most inexpensive method, the dried products are often of poor quality suffering from contamination by insects, birds and airborne dusts, as well as from unexpected rainfall. These contaminants can have a serious effect on the economy of the developing country. Thailand being situated near the equator receives abundant solar radiation, especially in the northeastern part of Thailand (Pattanasethanon et al., 2007). Consequently, the utilization of a solar drying technology to improve on traditional sun drying is considered to be an obvious option for drying agricultural products in this country. Solar dryers may be divided into passive and active dryers, according to the mode of ow of air (natural or forced). Several designs of solar dryers have been studied over the years. One of them is solar tunnel dryer (STD). Schirmer et al. (1996) reported solar drying of bananas using an STD. The dryer can be used to dry up to 300 kg of ripe bananas. The temperature of drying air from the collector varied between 40 and 65  C during drying and the bananas could be dried within 35 days, compare to the 57 days needed for natural sun drying. Garg and Kumar (2000) presented the modeling and

thermal performance of a semi-cylindrical STD in the natural circulation mode. They concluded that the STD system can be used in natural as well as in forced circulation mode. The natural convective volume ow rate and the rise in the inlet air temperature around peak sunshine hours are sufcient for crop drying. Bala et al. (2003) reported solar drying of pineapple using STD. This dryer has a loading capacity of 120 150 kg of pineapple. The temperature of the drying air at the collector outlet varied from 34.1 to 64  C during drying. Bala and Janjai (2005) dried sh (Bombay duck) using STD. From the experimental results, it was inferred that Bombay duck was dried to a moisture content of 15% from 89.8% in 9 h of drying in STD as compared to 20 h of open sun drying. The average drying efciency was 60.23%. Finally, the economic analysis indicated that the payback period of STD for drying Bombay duck was 1.19 years. Hossain et al. (2005a) developed a mathematical model for heat transfer in the solar collector and coupled heat and mass transfer within the drying unit. Hossain et al. (2005b) have investigated optimization of STD for drying of chili in Bangladesh. Two optimum designs were obtained. For design-1, both collector and drying unit are 14 m long and 1.9 m wide and for design-2, both collector and drying unit are 13 m long and 2 m wide. Both the collector and drying unit in the basic mode are 10 m long and 1.8 m wide. The capacity of optimum mode dryers is higher than the basic mode dryer and achieves a cost saving 15.9%. Gupta (1994) presented the potential of solar energy utilization in the Indian silk industry. Simple solar dryers, like cabinet and tent dryers, were used for drying fresh cocoons. Silk reeling operations, involving the cooking, brushing, deossing and reeling of cocoons and post reeling operations, like degumming, bleaching, dyeing, etc., require water or processed liquor heated to temperatures ranging between 40 and 95  C. These temperatures can easily be provided by a solar collector. Finally, xation of pigments and metallic powder prints and some resin based nishes on silk are carried out by curing at 140150  C for a few minutes. With suitable catalysis, the curing temperature can be brought down to 110125  C. Dry heat up to 125  C can be easily made using solar concentrators (ovens). The objective of this study is to investigate the performance of the STD for drying silkworm pupae at different air ow rates under the prevailing climatic conditions of Mahasarakham, Thailand. Qualities of the dried silkworm pupae were compared between an STD and the open sun. Finally, a simple economic analysis was conducted to predict the payback period of the STD.

2.

Materials and methods

A mixed mode type forced convection STD was designed, fabricated and evaluated at faculty of Engineering, Mahasarakham University (16 140 N, 103 150 E), Thailand. The system consists of a at-plate air heating collector, a tunnel drying unit and a fan to provide the required air ow rate over the product to be dried as shown in Fig. 1. Both the collector and the drying unit are covered with transparent glass 3 mm thick. The tunnel drying unit and the air heating collector take the form of a duct of triangle cross section (cross section

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Fig. 1 (a) General view of solar tunnel drier and (b) positions of the velocity measurement.

area 0.36 m2) with maximum height at the middle of 0.26 m as shown in Fig. 1. The solar air heater has an absorber area of 6.6 m2 and uses a painted matte black metal sheet of 3 mm thickness. In the tunnel drying unit, stainless steel wire screen is used to make four products drawers which are placed on parallel grooves. This method was designed to facilitate loading and unloading of the drying products. The products to be dried are spread in a thin layer on a stainless steel wire screen in the dryer unit (grain absorber area of 4.4 m2). The dryer was 6.2 m long and 1.8 m wide. Closed cell elastomeric (thermal conductivity of 0.04 W m1 K1, 5 mm thick) is used as insulation material to reduce the heat loss from the dryer. The whole system is placed horizontally on a raised platform 0.8 m above the ground level. Ambient air was drawn from the opening in the front and passed through the collector. Heat is transferred from the absorber to the air in the collector and heated air from the collector, while passing over the products, absorbs moisture from the products. Solar radiation also passes through the transparent cover of the dryer and heats the products in the dryer. The dryer was never shaded by trees or buildings. Drying experiments were carried out in the month of May 2006. The global solar radiation incident on a horizontal surface was measured using a pyranometer (Kipp and Zonen B.V. model CM 11, accuracy 10 W m2). The STD was instrumented with K-type thermocouples for measuring the temperatures of the owing air along the ow direction of the air inside the dryer, the absorber plate, and the cover plate as shown in Fig. 2. Ambient humidity and temperature were measured using a Testo model 175-2 (accuracy 0.5  C, 3% relative

humidity (RH)). The air ow rate was calculated from the air velocity, measured by a hot wire anemometer (Testo model 445, accuracy 0.03 m s1) at the dryer outlet (Fig. 1) and the equal area method (Macferran, 1999) was used for air velocity measurement. A variable voltage was used to drive the fan. Weight loss of the products during the drying period was measured with an electronic balance (Sartorius model CP3202S accuracy 0.01 g). A digital clamp tester (Kewtech model KT200 accuracy 0.05 V, 0.01 A) was used to measure the power consumption of the fan. The sun dryer control samples were weighed as well. All data were recorded at 10 min intervals. Thai silkworm Nangnoi (Bombyx moril L.) pupae used in this study were bought from the local market and checked carefully to discard the spoiled ones to prevent contamination by foreign materials. To ensure uniformity of the physical characteristics of the dried pupae, those for each experimental shelf were selected as the same size and from the same batch. The moisture contents of the silkworm pupae were measured at the start and end of each run of experiments by air oven method using about 2 g of nely minced pupae at 100102  C for 1618 h and dried to constant weight for 24 h at 125  C (AOAC, 1990). The sample was found to have an initial moisture content of about 3.71 0.14 kg H2O kg1 dry matter (Mc 79% w.b.). Silkworm pupae were then spread on stainless steel screen trays in a thin layer. For each of the experimental runs the dryer was loaded to the full capacity about 30 kg of silkworm pupa. Testing started at 8:30 a.m. and ended at 4:30 p.m. each day. After 4:30 p.m. the pupae in the STD were collected and placed in plastic boxes in order

Fig. 2 Positions of the temperature measurement. Please cite this article in press as: Usub, T. et al., Experimental performance of a solar tunnel dryer for drying silkworm pupae, Biosystems Engineering (2008), doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2008.06.011

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to reduce diffusion of moisture within the drying samples. These were again spread in the dryer the next morning and the drying process was continued until the nal moisture content was reached. To compare the performance of the tunnel dryer with that of sun drying, the control samples of silkworm pupa were placed on a single layer tray (area of 0.2 0.25 m2, 0.8 m above the ground level and no cover) on a raised platform beside the dryer. The tray and control samples were weighed as one. Both experimental and control samples were dried simultaneously under the same weather conditions.

Thus, efciency of the dryer is Drying efficiency Outputdryer IAdryer Outputcollector (7)

and that of the energy consumed by the fan is Efan 103 Pfan t (8)

where Efan is the energy consumed by the fan, MJ; Pfan is the power of the fan, kW. The overall drying efciency is dened as the ratio of energy output of the dryer to total energy input. Thus, overall efciency of the system is Overall efficiency Outputdryer IAcollector IAdryer Efan (9)

3.

Analysis

The main characteristics which are generally used for performance estimation of any drying system are drying time or drying rate, dryer efciency and the specic moisture extraction rate. The instantaneous moisture content Mt at any time on dry basis is calculated from (Leon et al., 2002) ! Mo 1Wt 1 (1) Mt Wo where Mt is the instantaneous moisture content, kg H2O kg1 dry matter; Mo is the initial moisture content, kg H2O kg1 dry matter; Wo is the initial weight of sample, kg; Wt is the weight of sample at time t, kg. Collector efciency is dened as the ratio of energy output of the collector to energy input to the collector. Solar energy input on the collector is computed as (Bala and Janjai, 2005) Z t Srt dt (2) IAcollector 106 Acollector
0

4.

Assessment of quality

For this study, two qualities were assessed as follows.

4.1.

Colour measurement

Colour evaluation of pupae samples was determined using a Hunterlab spectrophotometer model MiniScan XE Plus, which measures three parameters: lightness (L), redness (a) and yellowness (b). In terms of desired silkworm pupae color properties, higher L, and higher a, and higher b are preferred.

4.2.

Lipid content and fatty acids analysis

where IAcollector is the solar energy input on the collector, MJ; Sr(t) is the solar radiation at time t, W m2; Acollector is the collector area, m2; t is time, s. The output of the collector in terms of energy is Z t _ Trt dt (3) Outputcollector 106 m Cpa
0

_ where Outputcollector is the collector output, MJ; m is the air ow rate, kg s1, Cpa is the specic heat of air, J kg1  C1, Tr(t) is the air temperature rise at the outlet of the collector,  C. Thus, collector efciency is Collector efficiency Outputcollector IAcollector (4)

The drying efciency is dened as the ratio of energy output of the drying section to energy input to the drying section. Solar radiation input on the drying section is Z t Srt dt (5) IAdryer 106 Adryer
0

where IAdryer is the solar energy input on the dryer, MJ; Adryer is the dryer area, m2. The output of the dryer in terms of energy is Outputdryer 103 mr Lv (6)

where Outputdryer is the output of dryer, MJ; mr is the moisture removed, kg; Lv is the latent heat of vaporization of moisture, kJ kg1.

The silkworm pupae were divided into two groups, the rst group was then dried with the STD (due to budget limitations, only the silkworm pupae dried at an air ow rate of 0.3 kg s1 were used as the example) and the latter was dried under sun drying. Approximately 5 g of well ground dried silkworm powder was extracted with 50 ml chloroform methanol (2:1, v/v) containing 10 mg l1 of butylated hydroxytoluene and 0.1 mg ml1 of tricosanoic acid (C23:0, Fluka, Germany), as an internal standard, then the samples were stored in a fume hood overnight. Each sample was ltered and transferred into a separating funnel, and 15 ml of 0.9% sodium chloride was added. The samples were shaken well to allow the phase to separate; the lower phases were then evaporated and transferred into a 10 ml volumetric ask. Total lipid content was measured by the gravimetric method (Li et al., 2002). Preparation of ester derivatives of fatty acids for chromatographic analysis (Yang et al., 2006): The fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) of the total lipid extract were prepared by transesterication with 3 ml H2SO4 in methanol (0.9 mol l1) plus 1 ml toluene at 70  C for 2 h. Before injecting into the GC, FAMEs were ltered by Sep-pak silica column (Altech, Associates Inc., USA). Samples (1 ml) were analyzed quantitatively using Shimadzu Model GC-17A system tted with ame ionization detection eluted with H2 at 30 1 ml min1, with a split ratio of 1:17. A fused silica capillary column (J & W Scientic; DB-Wax; 30 m 0.25 mm, 25 mm lm thickness) was used for separations. The injector and detector were

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Solar radiation, W m-2

maintained at 270  C. Nitrogen was used as a carrier gas and temperature programming was from 150  C (hold 1 min) to 180  C at 25  C min1, then to 220  C (hold 4 min) at 2.5  C min1 and then to 230  C (hold 3 min) at 15  C min1. The fatty acids were identied based on its retention time and comparison with standard mixtures of FAMEs (NuChek-Prep, Elysian, MN, USA) running the same method (Siriamornpun et al., 2008).

1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0

08 :3 09 0 :0 09 0 :3 10 0 :0 10 0 :3 11 0 :0 11 0 :3 12 0 :0 12 0 :3 13 0 :0 13 0 :3 14 0 :0 14 0 :3 15 0 :0 15 0 :3 16 0 :0 16 0 :3 0

80 70 60 50 40 30 20

Relative humidity, Temperature, C

5.
5.1.

Results and discussion

Collector and drying efciency

Time of a day, h
Fig. 3 Variations of ambient air temperature (Ta), RH and solar radiation ( I ) on different dates: A, I (m [ 0.2 kg sL1, 5/5/ 06); -, I (m [ 0.3 kg sL1, 10/5/06); *, I (m [ 0.43 kg sL1, 13/5/06); :, I (m [ 0.5 kg sL1, 14/5/06); , Ta (m [ 0.2 kg sL1, 5/5/06); , Ta (m [ 0.3 kg sL1, 10/5/06); D, Ta (m [ 0.43 kg sL1, 13/5/06); 3, Ta (m [ 0.5 kg sL1, 14/5/06); ,, RH (m [ 0.2 kg sL1, 5/5/06); 6, RH (m [ 0.3 kg sL1, 10/5/06); >, RH (m [ 0.43 kg sL1, 13/5/06); , RH (m [ 0.5 kg sL1, 14/5/06).

The variations of solar radiation, ambient temperature and humidity over four days, during solar drying of silkworm pupae at different mass ow rates, are shown in Fig. 3. During the drying experiments, the daily mean values of ambient air temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation ranged from 30.934.8  C, 46.252.7% and 816.7878.0 W m2, respectively. The ambient relative humidity decreases with the increase in the ambient temperature. For designing a solar collector for drying purposes, information on the temperature rise of air with insolation is important. If the inlet temperature is close to ambient temperature, the temperature rise varies almost linearly with incident radiation (Azharul Karim and Hawlader, 2006). The plot of different air ow rates is shown in Fig. 4 along with the regression line for temperature rise and the incident radiation. Equations for different air ow rates are given as follows: DT 0:017I 0:594 air DT 0:009I 1:989 air DT 0:008I 0:787 air DT 0:008I 0:036 air flow 0:20 flow 0:30 flow 0:43 flow 0:50 kg s1 ; R2 kg s1 ; R2 kg s1 ; R2 kg s1 ; R2 0:90 0:90 0:88 0:92

These equations would be helpful to estimate the uid temperature for any day of the year with the help of available meteorological data. If the average meteorological condition is known, the outlet temperature can be estimated, which is considered important for designing a solar dryer for a particular application. Fig. 5 shows the variations of thermal efciency and maximum outlet temperature of the collector with air mass ow rate. From the gure, it can be seen that the efciency of the collector is strongly dependent on the air ow rate. This is due to decreased thermal losses to the environment. Collector outlet temperature is an important parameter for drying applications. Outlet air temperature was investigated for a wide range of air ow rates. Fig. 5 also shows the variation of outlet temperature at different air ow rates. As expected, the outlet temperature of the owing air through the collector decreased with increased ow rate. The drying curves of silkworm pupae in the STD at different air ow rates and open sun drying process are presented in Fig. 6. As shown in Fig. 6, the average initial moisture content of around 3.70 kg H2O kg1 dry matter was dried to the nal moisture content of about 0.20 kg H2O kg1 dry matter. The effect of drying air ow rate

was also presented in this gure. An increase in the drying air ow rate results in decreasing drying time as a result of increasing convective mass transfer between the drying air and the product (Kaya et al., 2006). The drying time was not only dependent on the drying air ow rate, but also dependent on the drying air temperature. The drying air temperature of the solar dryer was decreased with an increase of the drying air ow rate as shown in Fig. 5. Therefore, the STD had the shortest drying time at the drying air ow rate of 0.3 kg s1, which reduced the drying time by about 40% when compared to open sun drying. All of the drying air ow rates tested in the STD gave shorter drying times compared to open sun drying. The decrease in the drying time could be due to the fact that the silkworm pupae in the dryer received energy both from the collector and from incident solar radiation, while the control samples received energy only from incident radiation and lost significant amount of energy to the environment.
20 18

Temperature rise, C

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Solar radiation, W m-2

Fig. 4 Variations of temperature rise across the collector with incident radiation for different air ow rates: >, m [ 0.2 kg sL1; ,, m [ 0.3 kg sL1; 6, m [ 0.43 kg sL1; 3, m [ 0.5 kg sL1.

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60

55

4 3.5 Open sun drying m=0.20 kg s-1 m=0.30 kg s-1 m=0.43 kg s-1 m=0.50 kg s-1

Moisture content, kg H2O kg-1 dry matter

50

50

3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5

Temperature, C

Efficiency,

40

45

30 Thermal efficiency Drying efficiency Maximum outlet temperature 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

40

20

35

10

30

0 0 200 400 600 800 1000

Air flow rate, kg

s-1

Elapsed drying time, min

Fig. 6 Variations of moisture content with drying time: ,, Open sun drying; >, m [ 0.2 kg sL1; 3, m [ 0.3 kg sL1; L1 B, m [ 0.43 kg s ; 6, m [ 0.5 kg sL1.

Fig. 5 Variations of thermal efciency, drying efciency and maximum outlet air temperature of the collector with air ow rate: ,, drying efciency; 6, thermal efciency; >, maximum outlet temperature.

The thermal, drying and overall efciencies of the STD at different air ow rate are given in Table 1. The fastest average drying rate 0.37 kg H2O kg1 dry matter h1 gave the best daily drying and overall efciencies of 30.14% and 19.68%, respectively. However, there is only a small difference between the drying rates for all four rates. Since the collector efciency increases with air ow rate, the drying efciency must be reduced at lower temperature. This would suggest that a larger collector could increase temperature and so the drying rate. Besides, the graphs of ambient conditions show that the incoming air has considerable drying capacity, particularly in the second half of the days drying. It would be interesting to compare the drying rate without the collector. It would also be worth ventilating the pre-solar-drying pupae store, in order to shorten the drying time in the solar collector/dryer.

5.2.

Quality of silkworm pupae

Silkworm pupae are one of the most popularly consumed insects in rural communities of north and northern Thailand. It has been reported to be nutritious and contains high protein (Yhoung-Aree et al., 1997). To our knowledge, there has been no research on the effect of the drying process on lipid composition and fatty acid concentration in silkworm. The results of lipid content, the composition and concentration of fatty acid of silkworm dried at different temperatures are shown in Tables 2 and 3. There was no signicant difference in lipid contents of silkworm pupae dried by both sun drying or STD.

This could be explained by lipid content not being affected by lipid oxidation or lipolysis at the temperatures studied in our drying systems. Huang et al. (2004) reported that both thiobarbituric acid reactive (TBARS) and glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) activity, which are related to lipid oxidation, were affected by an internal temperature of 60, 70 or 80  C. The enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, monodehydroascorbate reductase were not involved the in the process at higher temperatures (Ali et al., 2005). The predominant fatty acids of silk pupae were alpha-linolenic acid (18:3n 3), followed by oleic acid (18:1), palmitic acid (16:0) and linoleic acid (18:2n 6) (Tables 2 and 3). Alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid, is an essential fatty acid since human cannot synthesis but must be supplied in the diet. It has been reported to play a signicant role in human growth, development and disease prevention (De Logeril and Salen, 2004). The results showed that there were no signicant differences in most fatty acids in dried silk pupae except for C 18:1 and C 18:3n 3. There was a slight decrease in composition of 18:3n 3 from 45.6% to 44.6%, while 18:1 was slightly increased (20.421.0% of total fatty acid). Similar results were found in lipid concentration (Table 3). That may be caused by oxidation during heating process. Decreased polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) levels might be caused by processing and heating, in which the protein in membrane structure will be decomposed, phospholipid released, PUFA will be oxidized gradually since long chain PUFA are predominantly located in phospholipid (Sinclair and ODea, 1987). Overall, monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and PUFA showed

Table 1 The thermal, drying and overall efciencies of the STD at different air ow rates Air ow rate (kg s1) Collector Energy input (MJ)
183.1 164.7 181.6 218.6

Dryer Efciency (%)

42.76 46.65 49.06 54.22

Energy output (MJ)

78.03 76.84 89.12 118.50

Energy input (MJ)

204.5 177.6 221.1 257.6

Energy output (MJ)

53.06 53.52 53.66 53.75

Efciency (%)
25.29 30.14 24.03 20.87

Overall efciency (%)

0.20 0.30 0.43 0.50

16.98 19.68 16.41 14.02

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Table 2 Fatty acid composition (% of total fatty acids) of silkworm pupae dried under sun drying and solar tunnel dryer Fatty acids
C12:0 C14:0 C15:0 C16:0 C17:0 C18:0 C20:0 SFA C15:1 C16:1 C18:1 C20:1 MUFA C18:3n 3 C18:2n 6 C20:3n 6 C20:4n 6 n 6 PUFA PUFA n 3/n 6 Lipid content (g (100 g)1 sample)

Table 4 Colour of solar tunnel, open sun dried silkworm pupae Air ow rate (kg s1)
0.20 0.30 0.43 0.50 Open sun drying Before drying

Color parameters L
35.3 0.8 38.9 0.5c 41.1 0.6d 41.4 0.4d 33.3 1.4a 48.3 2.1e
b

Sun drying
0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 17.0 0.1 0.2 0.1 6.2 0.0 0.4 0.0 24.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.6 0.0 20.4 0.1b 0.1 0.0 21.2 0.1 45.6 0.2a 8.8 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 9.1 0.1 54.7 0.1a 5.0 0.1 2.4 0.1

Solar tunnel drying

0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 17.5 0.6 0.2 0.0 6.2 0.1 0.4 0.0 24.6 0.7 0.1 0.0 0.6 0.0 21.0 0.2a 0.1 0.0 21.9 0.2 44.6 0.5b 8.8 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 9.0 0.2 53.6 0.6b 4.9 0.1 2.4 0.1

a
7.8 0.8 7.8 1.1a 8.1 0.1ab 8.3 0.8ab 8.5 0.2b 8.3 1.8ab
a

b
24.2 0.4b 24.4 0.4b 24.6 0.8b 24.7 0.8b 20.6 0.7a 35.5 2.8c

Means in the same column with same letters are not signicantly different from each other.

drying. The higher air ow rate has more reds and yellows and is brighter than those in lower air ow rate. This is because drying air temperature increases as air ow rate decreases (as shown in previous section). The brightness and yellow values obtained from solar tunnel drying were signicantly higher than those obtained from open sun drying. The darkness in open sun drying was due to the direct exposure of the pupae surfaces to solar radiation for a longer drying time.

Means with different letters in the same row were signicantly different at the level p < 0.05.

5.3.

Economic evaluation

a greater change than saturated fatty acid (SFA), and this result indicated that fatty acids containing double bonds were less stable to heat than SFA. Table 4 shows the colour evaluation of the STD for drying silkworm pupae at various air ow rates and open sun

To evaluate the economic viability the payback period of the STD for drying silkworm pupae is determined, measured in years (n). The formula used here is given by (Newnan, 1983) JB 1 i 1 n i1 i
n

! (10)

Table 3 Fatty acid concentration (mg (100 g)L1) of silkworm pupae dryed under sun drying and solar tunnel dryer Fatty acids
C12:0 C14:0 C15:0 C16:0 C17:0 C18:0 C20:0 SFA C15:1 C16:1 C18:1 C20:1 MUFA C18:3n 3 C18:2n 6 C20:3n 6 C20:4n 6 n 6 PUFA PUFA

Sun drying
15.8 1.0 24.5 0.5 10.4 0.5 3027.3 79.7 42.7 8.2 1110.9 22.3 73.5 4.1 4305.2 100.6 21.2 0.6 105.6 3.2 3644.9 94.2 7.6 0.8a 3779.3 97.1a 8149.1 219.1a 1576.2 41.2 24.3 0.7 16.8 3.4 1617.3 40.4 9766.4 255.0

Solar tunnel drying

18.1 3.7 28.5 3.7 12.2 1.8 3543.3 411.0 43.0 6.1 1250.5 120.9 80.5 9.0 4976.2 552.9 25.5 2.4 122.4 7.9 4249.9 329.5 25.2 3.7b 4423.0 338.8b 9017.0 363.8b 1778.2 127.2 27.2 2.1 20.8 1.5 1826.1 130.7 10843.1 894.2

where J is the initial investment cost of the STD, B is the annual net undiscounted benets, i is the interest rate and n is the payback period. In general, three different seasons in Thailand can be recognized as follows: summer season is about three months, from mid-February to mid-May. Rainy season occurs from mid-May to mid-October. Winter season also occurs from mid-October to mid-February (Khedari et al., 2002). Therefore, it is assumed that the STD is operated during summer and winter seasons, the operating time was 240 days a year. During 2007, the interest rate of the Thai bank was approximately 7% and the average electrical cost was 3 Baht W1 h1. The electrical energy consumption was calculated based on the best overall efciency of the STD at the air ow rate of 0.3 kg s1. Table 5 shows an economic evaluation of the STD for drying silkworm pupae. It is noted that the payback period is 1.42 years.

6.

Conclusions

Means with different letters in the same row were signicantly different at the level p < 0.05.

The performance of the STD has been presented. It can be used for dehydration of various agricultural products as well as the silkworm pupae under the climatic conditions of Mahasarakham, Thailand. The moisture content was reduced from 3.70 to 0.20 kg H2O kg1 dry matter in 945 min for open sun drying, whereas the STD took only 570 min. Depending on drying air ow rate and weather conditions,

Please cite this article in press as: Usub, T. et al., Experimental performance of a solar tunnel dryer for drying silkworm pupae, Biosystems Engineering (2008), doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2008.06.011

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biosystems engineering xxx (2008) 18

Table 5 Computation of payback period of the STD Items

Fresh silkworm pupae Dried silkworm pupae Product net weight per kg fresh pupae Drying batch Capacity of dryer Cost of dryer Life of dryer Depreciation Cost of maintenance Labour cost 2 148 240 Cost of fresh pupae 30 120 100 Total income 7.5 120 510 Cost of electrical consumption, Baht year1 Total cost Net income Payback period Note: 1 US dollar z 33 Baht. 100 Baht kg1 510 Baht kg1 0.25 kg 120 batch year1 30 kg batch1 31 000 Baht 10 years 3100 Baht 500 Baht 71 040 Baht 360 000 Baht 459 000 Baht 649.8 435 290 23 710 1.42

STD resulted in a reduction in the drying time by 40% in comparison to open sun drying. This present study also indicated that the lipid content and fatty acid composition of dried silkworm pupae were not affected by STD compared to sun drying. Only a slight change in a few unsaturated fatty acids was observed. The payback period of the STD was estimated to be about 1.42 years.

Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support provided by the Commission on Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Mahasarakham University.

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Please cite this article in press as: Usub, T. et al., Experimental performance of a solar tunnel dryer for drying silkworm pupae, Biosystems Engineering (2008), doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2008.06.011