Solar Fish Dryers as a Solution for Improving the Quality of Fisheries

Products to Support Green Technology during the Pandemic

Covid-19

Mey Risa

, Agus Irawan

, Adi Pratomo

, Anhar Khalid

and Yusuf R. Fauzi

Business Administration Department, Politeknik Negeri Banjarmasin, Indonesia

Information Management Department, Politeknik Negeri Banjarmasin, Indonesia

Mechanical Engineering, Politeknik Negeri Banjarmasin, Indonesia

yusuf.rizal.fauzi@poliban.ac.id

Keywords: Green Technology, Fish Dryers, Fisheries.

Abstract: The fishing communities in “Sungai Rasau” village, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, have several joint business

groups that mostly process their fish catch into salted fish products and shrimp paste for sale in the market.

The fish drying technique still uses traditional methods that rely on sunny weather, this is not effective because

the weather is difficult to predict due to climate change globally. This means that high rainfall affects fish

drying production activities. If left unchecked, this certainly results in a decrease in the quantity and quality

of salted fish production and affects their income and welfare. To maintain and improve the quality of raw

materials for fisheries production, the solution is the use of appropriate technology, namely making salted fish

processing equipment or dryers that are energy efficient and not influenced by weather factors such as rain.

Using this tool can improve the quality and quantity of production. The form of activity methods carried out

include (1) coordination with related parties to foster local fishing groups; (2) identify problems and determine

solutions; (3) solar fish dryer design; (4) making efficient technology fish dryers that effectively and

efficiently utilize solar energy.

1 INTRODUCTION

As the largest archipelagic country in the world with

2/3 of its territory is the sea, Indonesia has a large area

of sea, coast, and small islands that are strategically

significant as pillars of national economic

development. Specifically for fish catches,

Indonesia's potential is very abundant so that it can be

expected to be a leading sector of the national

economy. The potential of captured fish can be

consumed by Indonesian citizens and can even be

exported abroad. To get a good level of sales, of

course, must be balanced with quality processed

products.

Sungai Rasau Village is one of the coastal and

densely populated villages in the prosperous sub-

district of Tanah Laut regency with a population of

2,044 inhabitants. About 70% of the population earns

a living as fishing and fishing laborers. Rasau river

village has the potential to develop fisheries and

maritime businesses because it is in the Java seafront

position.

Figure 1: Location Map.

The headman of Sungai Rasau Village as shown in

figure 1 has a plan to solve the problems faced by fish

processing groups in tidying up:

Risa, M., Irawan, A., Pratomo, A., Khalid, A. and Fauzi, Y.

Solar Fish Dryers as a Solution for Improving the Quality of Fisheries Products to Support Green Technology during the Pandemic Covid-19.

DOI: 10.5220/0010965500003260

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Applied Science and Technology on Engineering Science (iCAST-ES 2021), pages 1365-1369

ISBN: 978-989-758-615-6; ISSN: 2975-8246

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

1365

• Improving the quality of salted fish and other sea

products (quality) that have fallen due to fungal

attacks when raw materials have not been dried up.

• Increase salted fish production (quantity) which

decreases when rainfall is high.

• Utilization of cheap new renewable energy sources

Figure 2: Traditional Drying Locations.

As shown in figure 2, the fish processing group in

Sungai Rasau village still uses traditional methods in

which the process of drying salted fish and other sea

products is highly dependent on the weather. If the

weather is uncertain, the drying process will be

disrupted, because the results of dried fish and other

marine products are very dependent on the sun's heat.

Besides the problem of dependency on the weather,

another thing that is a problem in the storage process

of the product which is less than the maximum so that

sometimes the product becomes damaged. The

problems faced by the Fish Processing Joint Business

Group (KUB) in Sungai Rasau Village, Tanah Laut

South Kalimantan Regency are the inability in

mastering the energy-saving salted fish processing

technology sector and minimal funding problems.

Fish meat contains a good source of protein (15-

20%), vitamins, carbohydrates, and other substances

that are soluble in water (Sobukola and Olatunde,

2011). Fish is one type of food that contains water,

where the water content in fish must be discarded. If

fresh fish is not used directly or not processed into

finished products, the fish will undergo a decay

process (Sidhi et al., 2018). Proper handling of fish is

needed so that the quality can be maintained. There

are various methods of preserving fish such as

fumigation, drying, salting, and freezing. The drying

of food products is an important thing to increase

resistance on degradation due to water activity

reduction (Bellagha et al., 2002). Fish drying can be

done by using traditional methods, namely open sun

drying or solar drying using hot air. The open sun

drying process has many disadvantages including

long drying times, requires a large area, the quality of

fish decreases due to dust, prone to animal

disturbances such as flies, chickens, cats, and dogs

and requires considerable labor (Setyoko and

Darmanto, 2012). Comparing to open sun drying, the

use of greenhouse dryers leads to reducing drying

time up to 50% and a significant increase in product

quality in terms of color, texture, and taste (Das and

Tiwari, 2008). Solar dryer for fish products has been

developed in several studies. Sengar, Khandetod, and

Mohod (2009) examined solar dryers with the cost of

dry shrimp (Kolambi) (Das and Tiwari, 2008).

Bintang, Pongoh and Onibala (2013) made a solar

fish dryer with a loading and unloading system

(Bintang et al., 2013). Sidhi, Pujianto, Prasetyo, and

Muhfizar (2018) conducted an experimental study of

yellowtail fish drying under an active greenhouse

dryer (Sidhi et al., 2018).

2 METHOD

To achieve its objectives, technology implementation

activities in Sungai Rasau village will be carried out

through several approaches including:

a. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) model that

emphasizes community involvement in all

activities starting from planning, implementing,

and evaluating program activities.

b. Participatory Technology Development Model

that utilizes appropriate technology based on local

cultural knowledge and wisdom.

c. A community development model is an approach

that involves the community directly as the

subject and object of the implementation of

community service activities.

Figure 3: Activity Steps.

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d. Persuasive is an approach that is appeal and

support without coercion for the community to

play an active role in this activity.

e. Educative namely the approach of socialization,

training, and assistance as a means of transfer of

knowledge and education for community

empowerment.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Design

The solar fish dryer uses the main material of the

Solar Collector which functions to absorb solar

radiation energy that falls on the surface of the

absorbent plate so that the plate temperature becomes

high. Solar cell construction as follows:

Table 1: Tool specification.

Tools Function

1 Solar panel

board

Functioning to convert solar energy

into electrical energy is used to supply

electrical energy in fish drying

equipment. The module used is 300

wp, so the power produced is 300

watts/hour.

2 Solar

charge

controller

Serves as a voltage regulator from the

supply of photovoltaic modules to

battery charging and inverter supply.

3 Inverter Serves as a modifier of the input

voltage from the solar regulator in the

form of a DC voltage which is then

converted to an AC voltage to supply

the voltage to the control

thermometer, heater, and fan.

4 Battery Serves to store energy from

photovoltaic modules used as a

backup supply for the night so that the

device continues to operate

5 Heater plate Function as a medium fish dryer

6 Cables As a power supply

The design of the sea fish dryer into salted fish

uses a rack system with the main components in the

form of solar panels, solar charge controller, batteries

(batteries), intervers, temperature control, RTD

temperature sensors, incandescent lamps, as seen in

figure 4, 5, 6 and 7:

Figure 4: Design top view.

Figure 5: The design of the rear view.

Figure 6: Design side

view.

Figure 7: The design of the side view above.

Solar Fish Dryers as a Solution for Improving the Quality of Fisheries Products to Support Green Technology during the Pandemic Covid-19

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3.2 Implementation

Figure 8: A Fish dryer is a side view.

Figure 9: The inside of a fish dryer.

Figure 10: Decreased water content in fish.

Design the size of the Fish drying chamber using data

from the calculation of the heat load needed for a fish

dryer with a capacity of 5 kg and can be expanded to

7 kg with a tool size of about 1.3 meters, where Qtotal

is obtained 35634.96 kJ / the drying cycle and also the

collector's need to get heat is 1781.75 kJ / cycle for

the needs of the collector used to dry 1 kg of wet fish

based on calculations to obtain energy to dry the

water fish for 7.11 hours then it is equivalent to the

collector of 3.65 m2.

The fish dryer uses a controller that can adjust the

temperature automatically, where when the

temperature reaches 50o C automatically, the heating

machine will turn off. After the temperature drops and

reaches 45o C the heater will turn on again. The

temperature setting can be adjusted according to the

needs of drying raw materials.

The costs incurred for the manufacture of this fish

dryer are relatively large, but this is a result of the

quality of the durability of the equipment. When

compared to a dryer made of wood, of course, the

appliance will not last long because it will break

quickly. In contrast to tools made of aluminum which

have a better level of resistance, termite and fire

resistance.

The results of the implementation of the solar

powered fish dryer that can be seen are the drying

process that is more faster and more production with

a better results as seen in the figure 11, figure 12 and

table II.

Figure 11: The result of drying the traditional way.

Figure 12: The results of drying using a dryer.

Table 2: Comparison of Drying Results.

Traditional

Drying using

solar dr

ers

Production / da

0.5 - 1 ton 0.5 - 1 ton

Drying time during hot

weathe

1 - 2 days 1 day

Drying time when the

weather is not hot

3 - 7 days 1 - 2 days

Production Loss 300 k

100 k

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Another benefit felt by the community with the solar

fish dryer is that more free time can be used to do

other jobs such as packing, doing housework, and

more time socializing with other parties so that there

are more opportunities to expand the market network.

4 CONCLUSION

A conclusion that can be drawn from the

implementation of solar fish dryer technology in the

Rasau river village is that with the application of solar

fish dryer technology, people who are members of the

Joint business group can produce better products

compared to traditional drying methods, which

caused by a more optimal and even drying process. A

Solar fish dryer is also a solution to the constraints of

the traditional drying process that relies on hot

weather, where when the weather is rainy, the

resulting product will rotten.

During the pandemic, the process of drying fish

using a solar powered fish dryer is very useful

because it can reduce time outside the home and the

drying process can be done at home.

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