Abstract
A solar drying system can be described as an attractive and promising application of the sustainable solar energy source. Forced convection solar drying is deemed the main pillar in solar crops drying. However, up till now, only a few of these solar dryers that meet the technical, economical, and socio-economical requirements are commercially available. Therefore, the aim of this research is to present the technical as well as the economic study of an installed forced convection solar dryer. The results of several experiments on the convective drying of dandelion leaves are studied using experimental designs along with statistical calculations and analysis (ANOVA) as key tools to model and optimize the effect of several factors on the plant in a solar dryer with forced convection. The outcome is a mathematical model that describes our system and allows us to obtain the most adequate information at the lowest cost. Additionally, several system factors were determined in order to analyze their impact on the response of the solar dryer system. In this regard, the temperature factor proves to be the one that strongly influences the drying time response; whereas, the thickness factor was found to have a negligible impact. Furthermore, it has been found that there is a linear relationship between the drying time values established by the model and the experimental values.
Published Version
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