Carrot Fibers Drying on a Forced Convection Greenhouse Model with Heat Additional Providing by Solar Energy

This paper presents the carrot fibers drying with model capacity of 10 kg per a batch of using the heat addition force convection greenhouse technology (HAFCGD). The model including two addited heater, a solar air heater operating from 7–9 AM and a solar oil heater from 3 PM until completion of a drying batch. The research has done the initial and finished moisture content of carrot fibers are 85% and 5.6%. The airflow is supplied in the greenhouse drying chamber (GDC) to be 0.06 m3/s, the air temperature in the GDC was maintained 50 ± 60 °C and the air velocity circulating in the GDC is 1,5 m/s during drying. The research obtained the drying time is 12 h, the average drying rate is 6.6% per hour and the specific power consumption (SPC) is 655.5 Wh/kg water. The research also compared with the force convection greenhouse drying (FCGD) and open sun drying methods. This research shows the importance of the additional heater of a FCGD in the vegetables and fruits drying to meet quality requirement.