Abstract
This paper involves with the experimental performance study of a triple pass solar flat plate collector integrated with thermal energy storage medium for drying of blanched bitter gourd slices. The experimental setup consists of a blower, triple pass flat plate collector and a drying chamber. The experimets were carried out in the meterological conditions of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The mass flow rate of air through the system was set as 0.06 kgs-1. From the results, it could be comprehended that, (i) triple pass arrangement of air improves the performance of flat plate collector (ii) thermal energy storage medium played an important role in consistent outlet air temperature and the thermal efficiency (iii) triple pass solar dryer took 5 hours to reach the final moisture content of bitter gourd (9% on wet basis) which is 29 % and 37.5% faster than without thermal storage and open sun drying system. It could be concluded that triple pass solar air collector performs better than without thermal storage and open sun drying.
Highlights
Solar drying is the most popular method for removing the moisture content from the agricultural products
The main hurdles faced with the solar dryer are less thermal efficiency, availability of the system for drying etc., Different solar dryers with performance improving techniques like to incorporate thermal storage medium, heat transfer enhancing elements, etc., for drying agricultural products are enlarged by the plethora of researchers
The temperature of air at the collector inlet was observed between 33 °C and 35 °C and it depends on the atmospheric condition
Summary
Solar drying is the most popular method for removing the moisture content from the agricultural products. Jain and Jain [1] studied the performance of the inclined multi pass solar air heater with inbuilt thermal storage on deep-bed for drying application. From the study, they observed that drying rate depends on the depth of drying bed and the moisture content decreases with the time. Jain [2] explored the performance of inclined multi-pass solar air heater with inbuilt thermal storage for drying of the paddy crop. Mittal and Varshney [3] investigated on a solar air heater packed with blackened wire screen matrices of different geometrical parameters They found packed bed solar air heater was thermo hydraulically efficient when compared to flat plate collectors. It is understood that double pass solar air heater achieved a higher efficiency (83.65 %) than single pass solar air heater (45.93 %)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
