The last few days have been frustrating and time consuming. I have been experimenting with different configurations of heat exchange plates in the dryer (to take heat from a biomass stove and transfer it to air in the drying cabinet) as well as different stove types, including gasifier stoves and rocket stoves. A uniform temperature of around 50 degrees is required to get a good quality product with a short drying time. This is difficult to achieve as wood burns at different rates. I even burnt a hole in the dryer when the temperatures were too high!
Another problem is controlling the smoke. To test this (without a smoke alarm) I tried to dry my sock, which was wet from the monsoon rains. The dryer did dry successfully, but I was left with a very smoky smelling sock. More design changes were needed.
After several experiments and modifications I was able to partially dry some bananas.
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