The purposes of this research were to develop and to test performance of mini heat pump dryer for slice banana. Drying chamber of 0.48×0.47×0.39 m3 was designed and it could contain three trays. The three trays had dimension of 0.33×0.409 m2. A blower with 174.6 W motor of air condition was modify and could adjust flow rates of three levels for air cycle system in dryer. The air system had bypass air at evaporator. The refrigerant of R-134a and four main parts were used in the heat pump system. The four main parts were a 497 W hermetic compressor a 1800 W condenser an expansion valve and a 1300 W evaporator. Experiments for test performance of the mini heat pump dryer used close loop air system an evaporator bypass air of 60 % a temperature of 60 oC and various flow rates of 0.117 0.128 and 0.140 m3/s. Slide bananas of 400-500 g had an initial moisture content of 244-281 %dry basis and were dried until final moisture content lower than 6.24±0.007 %dry basis. It was found that the flow rates of 0.117 0.128 and 0.140 m3/s had coefficients of performance (COPh) of 3.32±0.066 3.88±0.031 and 4.24±0.08 respectively and had specific moisture extraction rates (SMER) of 184.5±11.85 186.2±8.17 and 200.1±21.34 g/kWh respectively. The flow rate at 0.140 m3/s was the best condition because it had high specific moisture extraction rate.

The purpose of this research is to develop a hot air dryer using waste heat from a200 liter kiln for drying bananas and to investigate its drying performance. The main parts of the dryer consist of the drying chamber that has dimensions 0.71x0.83x.091 m3 the air circulation system and a heat exchanger which receives waste heat from the exhaust tube and kiln surface. The dryer was developed by designing a drying chamber on the top of a 200 liter kiln to reduce heat lost in the structure and an exhaust gas heat exchanger was developed using groups of copper tubes for increasing then heat transferred to the air. The drying performances were analyzed by measuring specific drying rates and specific energy consumption. Experiments were performed under different temperatures of 60 70 and 80℃ And at a constant velocity of 1.8 ms-1. Eucalyptus was selected as the heat source. Thirty kg of peeled bananas were prepared at an initial moisture content of 241.19±31.50% dry basis and were dried until to final moisture content of 48.47±10.46% dry basis. All experiments were carried out in duplicate. For temperatures of 60 70 and 80 ℃ the ave age specific drying rates were 0.085±0.0004 0.114±0.0009 and 0.1277±0.010 kg water h-1kesolid-1 and the average specific energy consumptions were 1.42±0.055 1.21±0.355 and 1.04±0.074 MJ/kg water respectively. Some dried bananas had burned at a temperature of 80℃ so at temperature of 70 ℃ was the optimal condition in this experiment. This produced good color a high specific drying rate and low specific energy consumption.