Visit to BAIF:
BAIF is an organisation at Urulhi-kanchan, Pune which works towards making self reliant rural societies through agriculture.
The purpose of visiting BAIF was to shift Vigyan Ashram’s Dome dryer to BAIF in order to compare the Dome Dryer with the S4S dryer at BAIF. These S4S dryers were developed by Science for Society an organisation based in Mumbai with the support of ICT, Mumbai.
The dryers are supposed to be compared by conducting trials on the two dryers simultaneously and comparing their performance.
Specifications: Dome Dryer VS S4S Dryer
Visit to BAIF with DR. Arun Dixit:
Dr. Dixit and I visited BAIF’s Urulhi Kanchan campus on 26/02/2021 to review the trials being conducted on Dome Dryer. Following is a list of our observations.
- Dome drier takes considerably longer time in drying, 4 hrs for S4S versus 72 hrs. for dome dryer.
- Faded absorptive paint is one of the reasons for slower drying in dome dryer,
- Data related to the amount of spinach loaded in the dome as well as the S4S dryer are awaited,
- The color and appearance of dome dried spinach is better than S4S dryer,
- S4S drier is a flat dryer without forced convection and a double-layered polycarbonate sheet is used to trap heat for drying,
- Modification of dome with similar polycarbonate sheet could improve the efficiency of dome drier multifold,
- Dome dryer could be modified with better absorption outer surface and better emissive inner surface to improve efficiency and shorten drying time,
- CFD of both S4S and dome dryer could be helpful for improving performance,
- Slow rotation of dome dryer or tray system would lead to better efficacy,
- Dome dryer is a better option for delicate drying where CO2 extraction of fragrance is planned,
- We have suggested loading at 4 to 5 pm in the evening and checking moisture level next day at the same time,
- BAIF plans to run a trial for ginger/ chopped ginger.
We asked Mrs. Thorat who conducts these trials at BAIF to record and send us the data in the following format,
