Energy and environmental analysis of an indirect hybrid solar dryer of wood using TRNSYS software

Abstract

The aim of this work is to develop a numerical model for investigating the performance of an indirect hybrid solar dryer of wood using TRNSYS software. A solar compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is used to produce thermal energy and the hourly dynamic simulations are conducted under Moroccan meteorological data. A comparative study between our numerical results and experimental results shows a good agreement and the Mean Relative Error (MRE) and the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) are 3.9% and 0.024 kg/kg, respectively. The energetic performance of the solar dryer components is investigated and the effect of some design and operation parameters on drying kinetic is presented. An environmental analysis is performed by focusing on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due to the combustion at the auxiliary heater system. Results show that the integration of the solar collector into the dryer system leads to reduce the energy consumption by the auxiliary heater system and to avoid annually about 34% of CO2 emissions.