Development of a forced convection electric fish drying machine

Abstract

A forced convection electric fish dryer was developed in this study to provide an efficient means of drying fish in urban and rural areas and serve as a substitute for the largely inefficient local means of drying fish. The machine was designed to accommodate 126 kg of fish distributed accordingly within the drying chamber. Six flat electric coils of 3 kW capacity each and a fan blower were provided to induce a saturating forced convective current within the drying chamber. The machine was evaluated at a drying temperature of 60oC with a total of 126 kg catfish, 21 kg on each tray. The result showed that percentage moisture contents of 81.8%, 72.7%, 62.7%, 54.1%, 47.7%, and 40.9 % were evaporated from the fish on the sixth to the first tray respectively in one hour. The mean percentage of moisture evaporated from all the trays was 60 %.