| dc.description.abstract | Solar drying is not modern technology, but it is a traditional way to save nutrition so it can be
consumed later. Dried mangoes were introduced as an idea that it will develop an added value
for the mangoes in West Africa and Burkina Faso where there is massive production. The target
group was the small mangoes producers and companies. Non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) distributed solar dryers on women, and they conducted training for them. By the time
the solar dryer seemed to be inefficient, the majority left it, and the companies now are using
gas-fired dryers for drying mangoes.
Burkina Faso is not a gas producer county, and it imports it from the Codivoir, the gas price is
quite high even that it is subsidized. It represents 15 -30 % of the total cost of the drying process.
It is known that the national strategy is about removing natural gas subsidies, which will make
the drying activity unprofitable according to mangoes producers.
Since Burkina Faso has abundant solar irradiance, it is preferable to utilize it in drying mangoes.
Some models were developed for solar dryers for mangoes in the past, but none of them is
working. The reason is the climate conditions in the harvesting season of mangoes, relatively
high relative humidity of the air combined with relatively low solar radiation.
Sorption material is the technology is being used nowadays to perform high-density energy
storage. The addition of such thermal energy storage can be part of the solution because it will
absorb the excess humidity in the air, which will enhance the air capability to absorb the
moisture in the mangoes. Also using storage will increase the working hours by storing the
available solar irradiance and using them at night. | en_US |
