International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 08 Issue: 09 | Sep 2021 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2021, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 2040 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF PROTOTYPE SOLAR DRYER USING THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE MATERIAL FOR DRYING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES CULTIVATED IN WESTERN MAHARASHTRA Vaishnavi Anand Inamdar 1 , Dr. J.S. Bagi 2 , Mr. P.A. Prabbhu 3 1 Student M.Tech (Energy Technology), Department of Technology, Shivaji University, Maharashtra, India 2 Director(retd.), Department of Technology, Shivaji University, Maharashtra, India 3 Assistant Professor, Energy Technology, Department of Technology, Shivaji University, Maharashtra, India ----------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - With food, shelter and clothing which are the basic need, energy is true need. Without energy nothing above mentioned is possible. With billions of population on the earth, food crises have taken place. Many people mostly in developing and under developing don't even get proper one time meal. There are many factors associating with the food insecurity. For conserving of the fruit and vegetables, we need to store them when they are in excess and use when needed. In this way we can reduce the demand and supply gap. But the storage and shelf life of fruits and vegetables is difficult. Due to moisture present in the fruits and vegetables they are prone to bacterial activity which in turn decays it. Also the cold storage around the world uses non renewable energy sources and thus the storing becomes costly. For all this drying of fruits and vegetables is necessary as the moisture gets evaporated and also its volume reduces which makes it enable to store for a more time. Drying is done by using non renewable energy sources but considering the fuels cost, pollution we are going to use solar energy for drying. From a large duration of time people are using sun drying for reducing the moisture but the problem lays in the contamination and irregular drying. For this reason we are going to use solar dryer which heats ambient air and uniformly distribute to the drying surfaces. Many designs are available like active or passive, direct, indirect and mixed/hybrid which improve the drying efficiency and reduce drying duration. Key Words: Dryer, Solar drying, Drying, Thermal Energy Storage, Food Security, Passive, Chimney, Solar Energy, Design, Efficiency, Perishable, Moisture. 1. INTRODUCTION Energy is one of the basic and fundamental need and right of human being. Energy used can be conventional or non-conventional. But due to growing population and industrialization there is large demand for energy. But due to scarcity of natural resources like coal, petrol etc there is big difference in supply of energy and actual demand. Due to large use of energy, there is problem of emission of harmful gases like CO2, SO2, etc which in turn cause global warming. Energy prices are also increasing due to demand and lesser availability. So clean energy like solar, hydro, wind are needed to use. Sun radiates enormous amount of energy to the surrounding which can be used for various purposes. Solar energy is used for heating, drying and generating electricity. Drying is an important aspect in increasing the life of goods. Agriculture is one of the important occupations all over the world. The agriculture produce is perishable as it has large amount of moisture in it. Due to moisture the life of agriculture produce gets shorten as it can rot. So drying helps in decreasing moisture and increasing life stability of the product. In conventional drying, the produce is kept under the sun directly. But there are some limitations as there are chances of contamination, rehydration, and degradation in quality due to uneven and uncontrolled drying. Also there are chances of damage by animals, birds and rodents in open drying. We get major advantage if the drying is done in a closed cabinet as the temperature in it is maintained and it is free of any contamination. It doesn’t require any excess energy during daytime and if required at night some additional provision can be done. The dryer can be designed in various types depending on the requirement and use. It can be direct type or indirect type, with use of collector or without collector or with the use of forced or natural convection. The results all across the world have shown that the produce has dried in less amount of time and the quality is good in solar dryer. 1.1 Solar Energy Solar energy radiated from the sun in the form of radiation and light energy. It is a form of renewable energy which is inexhaustible. Solar energy used can be distinguished between active or passive upon the how it is captured and how it is converted. About 174PW of energy is received from sun every year of which 30% is