Umudike Journal of Engineering and Technology

A 6kg batch capacity indirect natural convection solar-assisted charcoal smoking system was designed and developed using the local weather parameters in one of the host communities of Federal University of Technology, Owerri. The fish smoke dryer works on the principle of heat and mass transfer where ambient air temperature, relative humidity and daily insolation constituted the main drying force. Solar and charcoal heat formed the heat sources of the dryer. Preliminary results show that the collector can produce a maximum temperature of 67.5⁰C with efficiency of 53% under good weather condition, while the charcoal heat source can produce a maximum temperature of 94.8⁰C.  Statistical analyses also illustrate significant collector contribution to the dryer overall temperature. The smoking efficiency for the hybrid and charcoal heat sources yield 72% and 50% respectively, implying that the solar collector contributed 22% of the heat for smoke drying operation. The energy requirement of the hybrid system for smoking a batch of 6kg fish samples to the desired final moisture level was found to be 1478.2kJ.