Abstract
The study considers the exergy analysis of rational ways to use and store thermal energy in a solar dryer in order to increase the exergy efficiency of the technological process of fruit drying at individual farms. We analyzed the application of solar energy for the technological process of fruit drying in individual farms based on an exergy analysis of a solar dryer operation. We carried out full-time tests of a solar dryer at the latitude of the location of Rivne oblast (Ukraine), which has an average annual solar power of 3.41 kW·h/m 2 per day. Therefore, this makes it possible to obtain from 74.8 to 123.1 MJ of solar energy per day from 1 m 2 of an air collector area. We improved the procedure of an exergy analysis of operation of a solar dryer, which is based on the simplified mechanism of calculation of an exergy balance of a plant depending on physical parameters of the environment relative specific territory of a farm. The performed complex of calculation-quantitative studies confirmed the possibility of significant intensification of fruit drying process in a solar dryer. We established that heat losses during fruit drying in a solar dryer make up 3...3.7 MJ/kg, and the degree of intensification increases by 3.3...12 times. The exergy efficiency of a solar dryer without the use of a thermal battery is 87.6 %; with it – 89.8 % with the use of a thermal battery. The exergy efficiency of a solar dryer increases by 1.02 times. We achieved such results by using a flat mirror concentrator and a thermal battery in a solar dryer. An applied aspect of using the results obtained is the possibility to increase the energy efficiency of fruit drying process based on exergy express-analysis of the efficiency of a solar dryer. It will reduce the cost of energy resources by using solar energy. It creates a prerequisite for the transfer of technological solutions for justification of exergy balances for various characteristics of fruit drying process in a solar dryer.
Highlights
An important task in the creation of a new drying technology and production of modern drying equipment at present is energy saving
It makes it possible to distinguish frequent errors that ignore a qualitative aspect of the transformations of solar energy into heat, which occur during calculations
We considered the process of operation of a solar dryer, which has an energy unit consisting of a mirror concentrator, an air collector, and a thermal battery in its structure
Summary
An important task in the creation of a new drying technology and production of modern drying equipment at present is energy saving. The main method of thermodynamic analysis for a solar dryer and a power unit of a plant (a mirror concentrator, an air collector, a thermal battery accumulator) is an energy method based on the law of conservation of energy. It makes it possible to estimate full and relative losses of heat energy during drying and during a process of operation of a solar dryer. The execution of an exergy analysis of operation of a solar dryer makes it possible to investigate the use of solar energy in the process of fruit drying. Substantiation of energy balances for various characteristics of a drying process in a solar dryer, taking into account exergy, is an important task, which lays the basis for improvement of the technology of fruit drying
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