Design and Fabrication of a Convective Fish Dryer.

A simple convective fish dryer was designed and constructed to alleviate the problems associated with fish processing in Nigeria. It is made up of five main parts namely; the base frame which is fabricated from 40 x 40 x 3 mm angle iron bar with dimensions of 865 x 498 x 770 mm.; the drying chamber measuring 808 mm (length), 438 mm (width), and 648 mm (depth).; the drying cage/net measuring 720 x 350 x 36 mm which is constructed with a stainless wire mesh of 2.8mm diameter; the fan housing consisting of 3 fan blades measuring 520 x 100 x 2 mm; and three electric heating elements (3000 w, 6000 w, and 9000 w, respectively). The no–load evaluation (temperature profile) of the dryer showed the highest temperature of 110°C/drying chamber temperature in 30 minutes which is expected to give higher drying rate than the natural sun drying and open–fired drying methods