Abstract
In this work, heat energy analysis and economic feasibility of natural convection mixed mode solar dryer under three different methods viz., normal flat plate collector solar dryer (NFPSD), step fin plate integrated trough array collector solar dryer (SFPTSD) and SFPTSD with latent heat storage (LHS) are experimentally investigated. The drying time in SFPTSD – LHS (setup 3) to reach its safe moisture content for paddy, wheat, green chilli are 5.5 h, 6 h and 7 h respectively and it is significantly lowered to a maximum of 47 % as compared with NFPSD (setup 1). Also, the average maximum heat efficiency of 62.19 % for collector and 38.32 % for drying cabinet is obtained in setup 3. The specific heat energy consumption is lowered by 20.65 % and specific moisture extraction rate increases to 21.73 % for this proposed setup in comparison with setup 1. The improvement potential is reduced to a substantial margin of 136.5 W and yields an exergetic efficiency increase of 12.38 % than setup 1. An average annual saving increase of 193.08$ with its present value 94.33$ is achieved for setup 3 as compared with setup 1. We recommend this setup can dry edible produce at low cost and affordable to economically weak farming communities.
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