Design and construction of biomass powered fish dryer

Abstract

In this study, a simple biomass fish dryer was designed, manufactured and tested to reduce the problems associated with fish processing. The biomass fuel powered fish dryer has a closed rectangular drying chamber in which hot air is generated from the heating compartment (furnace). Its principle of operation is based on heat transfer from one place to another by convection. The heat needed to dry fishes is usually obtained from heat energy source (briquette) releases in heating compartment (furnace). After construction of the biomass dryer, a temperature reading of the various component of the dryer were recorded at every 30 minutes (from 12:00pm to 06:00pm). Performance of the dryer was evaluated by drying two species of fish (cat and scumbia). The result obtained (mass of the fishes reduced significantly from 0.16 to 0.02% as time increases from 30 to 300 minutes) shows that the performance of the biomass powered fish dryer is dependent on heat radiation incident in the drying chamber and ambient temperature. The moisture content of each fish depends on the fish species because some fish have high moisture contents.