Drying of Agaricus bisporus Mushroom in Solar-Biogas Hybrid Dryer

The button mushroom was dried from moisture content of 91% (wb) to 8.257 % (wb) in 11 hours with average solar radiations availability of 560 W/m2 and biogas consumption of 700 L. Average 50.87 °C, 50.09 °C, 49.22 °C, and 48.26 °C temperature was maintained throughout drying period in tray 1, tray2, tray3, and tray 4 respectively. Tray 1 was bottom tray of the dryer, tray 2 was 2nd tray from the bottom; tray 3 was 3rd tray from bottom whereas tray 4 was top tray of dryer. Drying rate during process varies from 0.368 to 0.000139 g of water evaporated/g of dry matter for tray1, 0.368 to 0.000213 g of water evaporated/g of dry matter for tray 2 whereas for tray 3 it was 0.367 to 0.000231 g of water/g of dm and for tray 4 it was 0.366 to 0.000231 g of water/g of dm. The variation in ln (MR) with drying time for each tray was found to be linear with inverse slope. At all levels straights lines were fitted satisfactory with coefficient of determination R2> 0.98 was observed for drying of button mushroom.