Entrepreneurial Avenues in Low Cost Solar Driers

On 10th June 2022 FX Entrepreneurship Development Cell and IIC in association with Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering organized a Guest Lecture on the topic " Entrepreneurial Avenues in Low Cost Solar Driers ". Dr. A. Justin Diraviam, Professor/EEE, FXEC was the resource person.

The resource person explained the entrepreneurial opportunities available to the electrical engineers and he highlighted how the solar dryers can be developed at a low cost and marketed to generate revenue out of it. He said that the preservation of food by drying not only reduces wastage but give better return to farmers. In open sun drying the substantial losses are owing to dust, birds, uncertain weather, rodents, insects, fungus, theft are difficult to avoid. He said that indirect dryers are the best option which not only save the crops from such problems but also maintains the nutrients value of crop which give the better returns to the farmers.

He also explained an indirect, active-type, environmentally friendly, low-cost solar dryer was designed to dry various agricultural products. The dryer was built by locally available, biologically degradable, low-cost materials. The dryer consists of solar flat plate air heater with three layers of insulation, drying chamber and a fan with a regulator to induce required air flow in the system.

This program was conducted through offline mode for the III year EEE students and coordinated by Ms.M.Krithika AP/EEE and Mr.N.V.Selvam, AP/EEE. Dr.J.Jasper Gnana Chandran, HOD/EEE was the Convener for the event.

We have received good feedback from the participants about the Guest Lecture program and also all participants benefited through this program. 41 students and 2 faculty members participated in the program.