Abstract
The use of solar concentrating technique for cooking purpose has been widely reported rather than for the baking process which is rigidly precise and requires process controlled conditions. Secondly, the energy and exergy analyses are rarely made for the baking process. In this paper, an energy- and exergy-based thermal analysis of an innovative solar bakery unit powered by Scheffler reflector has been presented. The system comprised of primary reflector (Scheffler reflector), secondary reflector, receiver and baking chamber. The baking experiments were conducted using four product samples (cakes) at 180 °C. The entire bakery unit was divided into two main parts, i.e. fan–receiver and baking chamber to find out the inefficiencies of bakery unit and its components. It was found that fan–receiver component handled major portion of solar energy and showed energy losses. It possessed high improvement potential (IP) rate (0.153 kW), high exergetic factor (f) value (59.26%) and low exergy efficiency (15%). Thermal analysis of baking process in the baking chamber showed variations in rate of energy utilization, energy utilization ratio, exergy losses and exergy efficiency in range of 0.01–0.07 kW, 25–75%, 0.19–1.08 kW and 6.62–56.46%, respectively. The overall exergy efficiency of system was found to be 59.26%. The study provides a detailed and sequential procedure to perform the thermal analysis of a solar concentrated technology-based bakery unit.
Published Version
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