COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DRYING CHARACTERISTICS IN CHILLIES

At moisture content of 9.7, 7.4, 4.6, and 2.9% (db) for green chillies; 8.7, 5.7, 4.5, and 2% (db) for red chillies in open sun drying, indirect solar cabinet dryer, solar tray dryer and hot air oven, respectively. The time required to achieve the above levels of moisture content were 22, 19, 13, and 8 h for green and 21, 18, 13, and 8 h for red chilies in respective dryers. The rate of drying was highest in the solar tray dryer (57 to 0.03) followed by hot air oven (47 to 0.08), indirect solar cabinet dryer (33.8 to 0.24) and open sun drying (31 to 0.01) at similar climatic conditions. The cost of drying chillies was estimated to be Rs. 1.93 /h , Rs 2.20 /h, Rs 1.87 /h and 4.95 per kg in open sun, indirect solar cabinet, solar tray and hot air oven drying methods, respectively.