VALORIZATION OF ONION AND TOMATO THROUGH SOLAR DRYING: CASE OF THE SHELL SOLAR DRYER

One of the most widely grown vegetable crops in Burkina Faso is onion and tomato. Solar drying is crucial for the conservation of these products. One of the most accessible solar dryers is the shell solar dryer, which allows these products to be dried hygienically. We were able to obtain some results from the experiment carried out over three typical days with a solar dryer which shelled 1116 g of onion and 695 g of tomato cut and distributed on the three racks of the dryer. We observed a total water loss of 456 g for the onion and 257 g for the tomato from the first to the third day of the experiment. The shell solar dryer has an efficiency of 29.88% with an inlet temperature of 33°C, an outlet temperature of 76°C and an air mass flow rate of 0.004 kg/s. The average solar irradiation is 579 W/m ².