Investigation of a Linear Fresnel solar collector (LFSC) prototype for phosphate drying

Abstract

Drying is an energy intensive process, which requires a high amount of thermal and electrical energy. To respond to that challenge, this paper proposes an innovative phosphate dryer environment friendly. The idea is to exploit the Linear Fresnel Solar Collector (LFSC) in the drying process. A laboratory scale prototype was designed and constructed based on a detailed theoretical and optical study. The numerical results prove that the designed prototype admits a significant optical efficiency which can reach values higher than 0.7 from May to July. An adjustment of LFSC prototype mirrors by laser beam allows good optical performances suitable for phosphate drying. The experimental results showed that the residual humidity of the dried phosphate was in the order of 0.02 kg water/kg dry matter in the LFSC process and 0.07 kg water/kg dry matter in the open air process, after 04 h 40 min. The drying process using LFSC has reached international phosphate marketing standards. Based on 100 m2 LFSC aperture area, the yearly provided thermal energy was 59,766 kWh, the largest quantities of dried phosphate are obtained during the summer with a maximum of 43 tons in July and the dodged CO2 emissions are about 38,255 kg.