CFD investigation of the behavior of a solar dryer for the dehydration of olive pomace

Abstract

ABSTRACT CFD investigation of the behavior of a solar dryer for the dehydration of olive pomace Solar dehydration is a process that reduces the percentage of moisture in the product without using nonrenewable energy. The present research analyses the behavior of olive pomace in the drying process. This process is important due to the need to reduce its humidity since with low humidity, olive pomace has good energy potential and can be used as biomass. The drying curve is determined in which a reduction from 67.34 to 40.73% of humidity can be observed in 12 days of dehydration, and the lower heating value curve and the elemental analysis of the olive pomace sample collected in the olive mill are determined experimentally in the solar dehydrator and in a laboratory. The dehydrator is analyzed with the help of computational fluid dynamics in ANSYS Student software. In this study, attention was focused on observing the effects produced by variations in the height of the dehydration chamber, and it was determined that the optimal height of the dehydration chamber is 300 mm.