Abstract
The intermittence of solar radiation, due to continuous rainy or cloudy days, is a limitation of simple and small solar dryers. These conditions often make them impossible to use. By including storage systems (thermal accumulation) and/or auxiliary energy sources, drying processes or dehydration can be conducted continuously, even during periods of low insolation. Therefore, the present work simulates and evaluates the thermal and energetic behavior of a hybrid system for heating the air that is directed to the dehydration chamber of a solar food dryer. The software selected for the simulation was TRNSYS. The simulated hybrid system consists of a flat plate solar collector and an arrangement of electrical resistors that guarantee the entry of air, at a constant temperature, into the dehydration chamber. The target temperature selected is 70 oC, and the absence of food products in the chamber is assumed. An arrangement with four electric resistors totaling 1900 W, with three different powers of 1000 W, 500 W, and 200 W proved adequate to guarantee the entrance of air at a constant temperature when considering the climatic conditions of a city in the South of Brazil.
Highlights
Solar energy is commonly used for the sustainable development of the agricultural sector, standing out as a viable option, in remote rural areas (Mekhilef et al, 2013)
The intermittent behavior of solar radiation and the climatic conditions of the site do not allow the continuous functioning of solar dryers
For the simpler solar dryers, the challenge is to ensure that the drying process is continuous, irrespective of periods of low insolation, such as cloudy or rainy days, and no insolation at night
Summary
Solar energy is commonly used for the sustainable development of the agricultural sector, standing out as a viable option, in remote rural areas (Mekhilef et al, 2013). A direct application is drying, which reduces spoilage of food after harvest This technique is widely used in developing countries (Mohanraj & Chandrasekar, 2008; Queiroz et al, 2011; Shamekhi-Amiri et al, 2018) because of its low cost, low payback time (El Hage et al, 2018), and for providing increased income to small producers in a sustainable manner. The intermittent behavior of solar radiation and the climatic conditions of the site do not allow the continuous functioning of solar dryers. These characteristics make continuous dehydration of the food impossible, resulting in incomplete dehydration, an unsuitable product, or a product with unsatisfactory characteristics for consumption. For the simpler solar dryers, the challenge is to ensure that the drying process is continuous, irrespective of periods of low insolation, such as cloudy or rainy days, and no insolation at night
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