Energy analysis and economic feasibility of wood dryers integrated with heat recovery unit and solar air heaters in cold and hot climates

Abstract

In this paper, the energy performance and economic feasibility of conventional wood dryer systems integrated with a heat recovery unit and solar air heaters are numerically investigated. Four different designs of wood dryers, composed of an insulated drying chamber, a heat recovery unit (HRU), a flat plate air collector (FPC), a photovoltaic/thermal air collector (PVT) and an auxiliary heater, are presented and compared. Annual dynamic simulations were carried out using a heat and mass transfer model with realistic meteorological data from two different climatic zones as boundary conditions. The effect of recovering waste heat and integrating each type of solar air heaters on the wood dryer energy consumption are presented and analyzed. Results show that recovering waste heat from conventional wood dryers in cold climate is more beneficial than in hot climate with an annual energy consumption reduction up to 41%. It is also shown that using a combined heat recovery unit and PVT collector improved significantly the energy efficiency of conventional dryers and reduced by about 67.5% and 49.5% the yearly energy consumption in hot and cold climates, respectively. Based on the economic analysis, the use of the HRU is beneficial in both climatic zones with a maximum payback period of 2 years. However, the use of the PVT collector is recommended only for wood dryers in hot climates where the payback period is about 3.5 years.