Rancang Bangun Prototype Kolektor Surya Tipe Plat Datar untuk Penghasil Panas pada Pengering Produk Pertanian dan Perkebunan

Abstract

The drying process is one of important activities on agricultural and plantation products to increase quality by deaden water content partly till limit of microbes can't grow. Therefore, in this final project designed a drying chamber measuring 0.5 m x 0.5 m x 0.7 m using flat plate solar collector sized 2m x 0.5m and used cassava as sample. Design of this drying tool aim to dry cassava from the initial moisture content of ± 60% to >10%. Isolated solar collector with rockwool, sterofoam and wood are used to isolate the solar collector to minimize the heat loss. Medium dryer is hot air which produced through collector which caught the solar radiation and flowed naturally to drying chamber. Furthermore it will be used to dry the cassava. The research used experimental method, that is, observe and quantify directly the drying tool. Then it will be processing and evaluate the data. From research was conducted at 8 am until 5 pm in sunny weather, the result show that the average radiation heat which can be absorbed by the collector is 372.21 watt, the average heat loss is 161.32 watt and the average efficiency from the solar collector during test is 40.13%.