Scrumptious Dried Bananas

At last! Smoke-free dried bananas, dried using biomass as a fuel. It took just under 30 hours to dry the bananas using 10 kilograms of wood. As this was an experiment, I recorded the weight of the bananas as they dried to determine the drying rate of the bananas.

Testing – It was great to here that many people liked the bananas, especially their colour and sweetness. When asking a couple of students at the hostel if they liked the bananas, they gave a response which even after 8 weeks, I find very confusing – the Indian head wobble!

The next steps of this project are to test the dryer at various sites around Karnataka.

Over the weekend myself, Sam and some of the students rented a Jeep to take up to Charmaddi, stopping off at various viewpoints and waterfalls along the way. On Sunday we had a relaxing day at the beach – and it didn't rain.

The New Dryer Prototype

I have now been able to put together the flat packed dryer and test its performance, obtaining temperature profiles when heated by the biomass stove. It seems like it has taken a long time to get to this stage, however every small problem normally requires a journey into the town to buy another component and this takes time.

The costs of the project have been about twice as high as expected, but switching certain components for cheaper ones and bulk producing it will significantly reduce the costs. Previous SELCO dryer designs have caused food to spoil by allowing smoke to enter the drying compartment this design does not. Dryers are certainly required in this area of very high rainfall. It has taken from Monday evening to today to get my clothes laundered – it takes a long time to dry clothes!

The project is well on track, and in a couple weeks the dryer will be ready to be tested by local community groups.