Developments in Indirect Solar Dryer: A Review

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sun drying the substantial losses are owing to dust, birds, .... raisin. The total drying time of the grapes is reduced by. 43% compared to the open sun drying [4].
International Journal of wind and Renewable Energy Volume 3 Issue 4 (pp, 67-74), ISSN: 2277-3975

Developments in Indirect Solar Dryer: A Review Vipin Shrivastava1 , Anil Kumar2, Prashant Baredar3

Abstract-Food losses are major problem of the worlds especially for developing nations where 25% of food is lost by mishandling, spoilage and pest infestation. It is found by researchers that preservation of food by drying not only reduces wastage but give better return to farmers. In open sun drying the substantial losses are owing to dust, birds, uncertain weather, rodents, insects, fungies, theft are difficult to avoid. The direct UV rays from sun further discoloured the crop and reduce the market value of crop which is dry in open sun and direct solar dryers. Therefore indirect dryers is the best option which not only save the crops from such problems but also maintains the nutrients value of crop which give the better returns to the farmers. In this communication, the developments in indirect solar-energy dryers have been covered in last three decades in various part of the world. Their design &operating principles have also been discussed. Performances of different dryers in terms of drying rate, thermal efficiency are also addressed which shows if farmers adopt such technologies they get better return and save time in appreciation of the hard effort they have devoted in crop cultivation. Index Terms— - Indirect solar dryer, natural convection, forced convection, storage

I. Introduction Open sun drying is simple and economical but suffer from many drawbacks such as no control over drying rate, over drying of crop, discoloration by UV, attack of insects and fungi, unfavorable weather etc. In general, open sun drying does not fulfil the international quality standards and therefore it cannot be sold in the international market. Other method direct drying is also having disadvantages such as (a) small capacity (b) discoloration of crop inside the dryer (c) moisture condensation inside glass covers (d) insufficient rise in crop temperature [1]. In an indirect drying system problem due to direct exposure of sun is avoided by the used of separate air heating unit and closed chamber, problem of discoloration and cracking of the product is also very low in indirect dryers. Separate air heating unit feed the high temperature humid free air to drying chamber. Hence moisture evaporation is faster in indirect drying system. In an indirect type solar dryer heat losses can be minimize by insulating the drying chamber [2]. Manuscript received August 10, 2014. 1. Vipin Shrivastava is a research Scholar in Energy Centre of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal, India. 2. Dr. Anil Kumar, Assistant Professor in Department of Energy, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal. 3. Dr. Prashant Baredar, Associate Professor in Department of Energy, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal.

II. Historical and Recent Developments In Indirect Solar Dryer Indirect solar dryer can be classified on the basis of circulation of air which may be either passive or active. Passive dryers working based on thermosyphonic of ambient inlet air while active solar dryer equipped with either fan or blower for blowing air forcefully[1,2]. Active indirect solar dryer further categorized on the basis of heat storage. Historical and recent development of these indirect solar dryer is given as:

III. Natural Convection Based Indirect Solar Drying System Ezeike developed design and tested new type of solar drying system for drying of dried rice paddy and yam slice shown in Fig. 1. Drying system consisting of triple pass flat plate air collector, a drying cabinet, and a dehumidification chamber. The flat plat collector is 190 cm long, 122.5 cm wide and 23.5 cm deep and it is having two absorbers which are separated by about 6 cm. During first pass air start to flow from below the bottom absorber than in the opposite direction and finally through the air spaces between the glazing and top absorber plate into a mixing chamber and a drying chamber; the top air space is divided into two compartments with baffles installed to distribute the air over the collector surface. The drying cabinet has two wall collectors located on the east-west line to provide additional heat gain and trays spaced equally on spacers. The dehumidification chamber is a rectangular box fitted with three perforated trays containing the desiccant, silica gel. This is used to maintain the drying process during periods of low insolation. The result shows that outlet temperature of solar collector is vary from 90°C to 101°C under clear sky at velocities of up to 3.5 ms−1. Average efficiency of collector was 73–81%. Drying chamber dried the rice paddy of layer 7.4 kg/m2 from 25.93% (w.b.) to 5.31% (w.b.) in 10 h and dried the yam slice of layer 5 kg/m2 from 64.90% (w.b.) to 10.66% (w.b.) in 31 h. The control experiment at prevailing ambient conditions required 2 days and 4 days respectively to attain the same moisture levels [3].

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International Journal of wind and Renewable Energy Volume 3 Issue 4 (pp, 67-74), ISSN: 2277-3975

Fig. 1 Experimental setup of the solar dryer (dimensions in cm) Pangavhane et al. had developed a new natural convection solar dryer consisting of a solar air heater and a drying chamber shown in Fig. 2. This setup can be used for drying various agricultural products like fruits and vegetables. In this study grapes were successfully dried in developed solar dryer. The qualitative analysis showed that the traditional drying, i.e., shade drying and open sun drying, dried the grapes in 15 and 7 days respectively, while the solar dryer took only 4 days and produce better quality raisin. The total drying time of the grapes is reduced by 43% compared to the open sun drying [4].

Fig. 3 An illustration of (a) cross-sectional view of the indirect-type natural convection solar dryer; thermocouples positions and (b) airflow diagram. Madhlopa and Ngwalo designed and developed indirect natural circulation solar dryer with integrated solar storage at Malawai, and found its best suitability for drying of pineapple and fresh foods. Natural circulation dryer with integral storage is shown in Fig. 4. The dryer consists of solar collector which has a horizontal concrete absorber that is painted matt black on its top part and integrated to the rock pile, drying cabinet constructed from 0.02 m thick board and covered with a painted galvanized iron sheet. Drying chamber accommodate three trays to carry 20 kg of pineapple and biomass backup heater in case of low solar irradiation during the day. The drying chamber was also constructed from block board (0.02 m thick) and covered with a painted galvanized iron sheet. Air flow is induced

Fig. 2 An illustration of schematic sectional details of natural convection solar dryer

by the difference between temperatures of air in the system

El-Sebaii et al. designed, constructed, and investigated an indirect-type natural convection solar dryer under Tanta prevailing weather conditions. This setup shown in Fig. 3 consists of a flat plate solar air heater connected to a cabinet acting as a drying chamber. In order to improve the drying process the air heater is to be designed in such a way that various storage materials can be used at bottom of solar air heater. Drying experiments have been conducted with and without storage materials for different spherical fruits, such as seedless grapes, figs and apples, as well as vegetables, such as green peas, tomatoes and onions. They noted the equilibrium moisture content Me for seedless grapes is reached after 60 h when drying system is used with storage and 72 h when it is used without storage material. Therefore, the storage material reduces the drying process by 12 h [5].

heater was a horizontal concrete structure integrated to a

components and ambient air. The absorber of the solar air

rock pebbles .The dryer was tested in three modes of operation (solar, biomass and solar-biomass), using fresh pineapples under different weather conditions and the average values of the final-day moisture-pickup efficiency were 15, 11 and 13 % respectively. In the solar biomass mode even after unfavorable condition of weather the dryer reduced the moisture content of pineapple slices from about 66% to 11% (db) and yielded a nutritious dried product however the rate of drying was not uniform across the trays. Consequently, there is need for interchanging them during drying to achieve a uniformly-dried product [6].

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International Journal of wind and Renewable Energy Volume 3 Issue 4 (pp, 67-74), ISSN: 2277-3975

be powered by a low-cost battery or photovoltaic system (Fig. 6). The results of this study indicated that the use of a small fan requiring a power of less than 2 W can give drying rates that are much higher than those achieved with a passive dryer and those achieved with sun drying [8].

Fig.4 Natural circulation solar dryer with integrated solar storage Maiti et al. design developed the small scale indirect natural circulation batch type solar dryer and fitted the collector with N-S reflector in a V-through alignment as shown in Fig. 5. They found that by using solar reflector, efficiency of solar collector increase from 40% to 57.8% under no load condition during solar peak irradiances in January in Bhavnagar Gujarat India. Efficiency of collector based on the heat transfer equation was 36.5% and 50.25% without and with reflector. A most popular Indian wafer “papad” could be achieved within 5 h in this static dryer having 1.8 m2 area of the collector and computed loading capacity of 3.46 kg. The initial and average values of the drying efficiency were 16.3% and 4.1%, respectively. The drying performance data could be fitted to the diffusivity equation with effective diffusivity value of 3.9×10 -9 m2/s [7].

Fig. 6 Indirect forced convection solar dryer Sarsilmaz et al. conducted experiments on drying of apricots in a newly developed rotary column cylindrical dryer (RCCD) equipped with a specially designed air solar collector (ASC) shown in Fig. 7. They shown that cooperation of RCCD and ASC increased drying rate, reduced drying times and rotation of drying chamber provided gains in both time and labour [9].

Fig. 7 Rotary column cylindrical dryer (RCCD)

. Fig.5 Photograph of constructed indirect natural convection solar dryer

IV. Forced Convection Based Indirect Solar Drying System Without Storage Oosthuizen studied the effect of a small fan to an indirect passive cabinet-type dryer, the fan being small enough to

Li Z et al. developed a solar drier for the drying of salted greengages. A greengage which is sweet and juicy type of dessert plum that range in colour from yellow to darkgreen, and can be speckled with burgundy. The preserved greengages are very popular dried fruit in china but its production is very energy consuming. A developed solar drier, consisting of 6 m2 of solar air collectors, a greenhouse-like drying chamber and three fans powered by a solar module of 20Wp as shown in Fig. 8. After developing they examine its drying performance and compared with traditional sun drying and found that traditionally direct sun drying of greengages take 48 days accounting for 60% of the entire processing period of

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International Journal of wind and Renewable Energy Volume 3 Issue 4 (pp, 67-74), ISSN: 2277-3975

preserved greengages. Furthermore, such traditional drying is restricted by climatic conditions and the quality of the final product is low due to poor sanitary conditions but using developed dryer shortened the drying period about 15 days and also eliminates the process time that takes 20 days to desalt the salted greengages as required in the natural sun drying method [10].

Fig. 9 Semi-continuous active mixed-mode-type solar drying system

Fig. 8 Cross-sectional dig of the examined solar dryer Zomorodian et al. designed, fabricated and evaluated a new semi-continuous active mixed-mode type drying system in Agricultural Engineering department, Shiraz University, Iran. Drying system based on new approach for employing solar radiation as the main source of energy for paddy drying. Drying system consist of six solar air heaters, an auxiliary electric heating channel, air ducts, fan and drying chamber as shown in Fig. 9. The area of each collector was 2m2 (totally 12 m2) and they were installed on a light frame tilted 45° towards the south. Drying system also has a provision of timer to activated rotary discharge valve. This valve along with auxiliary electric heating channel made the drying system suitable for any weather condition. Since the system installed with electric heating channel thus dryer can be operate from early morning to late afternoon which increases the drying capacity. To evaluate the drying system, a local variety of medium size kernel of rough rice (132 kg) was used which has initial moisture content of 27% (db) reduces to 13% (db) final moisture content in 3 h of drying period. The maximum overall efficiency of the drying system was found 21.24% (with average drying air temperature of 55 °C) and the fraction of energy consumed by the auxiliary heating channel during the drying process compared with solar energy was only 6–8% [11].

Smitabhindu et al. developed a force convection dryer in Bangkok, Thailand for the drying of bananas. Dryer system consists of solar collector, which is kept on the rooftop of the drying building and drying cabinet which is inside of this drying building shown in Fig. 10. The solar collector consists of polyurethane back insulator and glass cover. Each part of the collector was designed with a modular concept. Ambient air preheated by solar collector was sucked by an electrical blower and additional heat if desired, was supplied by an LPG gas burner. The drying cabinet which received heat from solar collector contains 15 trays in stacks and dimension of an each tray is 1m × 2m × 1.5m. This drying cabinet had been specially designed in such a way that hot air was guided to flow parallel through the products placed in the trays in the stacks. Then heated air was supplied to the cabinet. In this dryer uniform temperature of air were maintained inside the drying chamber. The optimum values of the collector area and the recycle factor were found to be 26m2 and 90%, respectively. The computer program developed in this study can be used to optimize similar drying systems [12].

Fig. 10 Schematic diagram of the solar assisted drying system

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International Journal of wind and Renewable Energy Volume 3 Issue 4 (pp, 67-74), ISSN: 2277-3975

Hossain et al. designed, fabricated and developed a hybrid solar dryer for drying of tomato as shown in Fig. 11. Dryer having load capacity of 20 kg and they tested dryer in whole year Potsdam-Bornim, Germany. The overall dimensions of the dryer were 1.0 m × 1.0 m × 1.0 m. Air could be blown from the collector to the drying chamber either from the bottom or top end of the dryer. To increase the efficiency of the solar collector, a flat-type reflector made of bright aluminium was added at top of the solar collector. The air inlet connection was a 120 mm diameter. There were five trays placed on after another in the drying chamber with an air gap of 120 mm between two trays. Each tray was 600 mm × 520 mm and made of a wooden frame and plastic net. The trays were placed in such a way that hot air can flow through, over, and under the products. There was a door in front of the dryer to open and close the drying chamber. Average air temperature at the outlet of the collector was found to be about 30 °C higher than the average ambient temperature during the normal sunny days. Collector efficiency was increased by 10% using the solar reflector. The capacity of the solar dryer was 20 kg of half-cut fresh tomato to produce 2 kg of dried product per batch. The average drying system efficiency of the solar dryer varied from 17 to 29% depending on different operating conditions. The drying process significantly reduced the color, ascorbic acid, lycopene, and total flavonoids of tomato but the losses of colour and nutritional components were higher than the commercially available samples in the European market. All pretreatment significantly improved the colour of dried tomato compared to non-treated sample [13].

Fig. 11 Schematic diagram of solar collector and dryer Abdullah Akbulut was conducted the drying experiments on mulberry and studies the effect of inlet air velocity and drying time on both energy and exergy. Mulberry trees which are extensively grown for their leaves as food. The system shown in Fig. 12 consists of four subsystems, namely (a) drying cabinet, (b) solar air collector, (c) air fan and AC hertz converter (d) data logger. The drying experiments were conducted during the period of July to August 2005 in Elazığ, Turkey from 09:00 am and continued till 17:00 pm. Average initial moisture content of approximately 3 kg of water/kg of dry solids and fresh mulberry were placed in the dryer. Five different mass

flow rates of 0.014, 0.02, 0.026, 0.033 and 0.036 kg/s. was taken for experiment. The main values of energy utilization ratio were found to be as 55.2%, 32.19%, 29.2%, 21.5% and 20.5% for the five different drying mass flow rate ranged between 0.014 kg/s and 0.036 kg/s. The main values of exergy loss were found to be as 10.82 W, 6.41 W, 4.92 W, 4.06 W and 2.65 W with the drying mass flow rate varied between 0.014 kg/s and 0.036 kg/s. It was concluded that both energy utilization ratio and exergy loss decreased with increasing drying mass flow rate while the exergetic efficiency increased [14].

Fig. 12 Drying of mulberry in forced convection dryer Șevik developed new type dryer for drying of carrot. It is a combination of double pass solar air collector of dimension 0.45m × 0.6m , heat pump, photovoltaic unit for supplying electric power to fan, drying cabinet having dimension 0.5m × 0.5m contain four shelves (Fig. 13). The most important property of double pass solar air heater is extended surface area of the absorber plate. The absorber plate has a zigzag form. Carrot slices were dried from initial moisture content 7.76 g water/g dry matter (dry basis) to final moisture content 0.1 g water/g dry matter (dry basis) at 50 °C drying air temperature. Velocity of air has been changed depending upon air inlet temperature of drying cabinet. During the drying operation, the air velocity was measured 0.4 – 0.9 m/s. The thermal efficiency of the double-pass collector was calculated from 60% to 78% according to experimental results. High efficiency of solar air collector is due to presence of fins which increases the heat transfer coefficient and output temperature of air from collector. Thus efficiency of collector increases. Carrot slices were dried at 220 min by using double-pass solar air collector in solar-heat pump dryer. Consequently, system (solar-heat pump dryer) can be comfortably operated without the need to the heat pump under normal ambient air conditions [15].

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Fig. 13(a) Double pass solar air heater (b) heat transfer mechanism Forced convection based indirect solar drying system with storage Shanmugam and Natarajan have designed and fabricated an indirect forced convection and desiccant-integrated solar dryer as shown in Fig. 14. They investigated the performance under the hot and humid climatic conditions of Chennai, India. This system consisted of a flat plate solar air collector, drying chamber and a desiccant unit. The desiccant unit was designed to hold 75 kg of CaCl2based solid desiccant which is consisted of 60% Bentonite, 10% Calcium Chloride, 20% Vermiculite, and 10% Cement. The drying experiments have been performed for green peas at different airflow rates. System pickup efficiency, specific moisture extraction rate, dimensionless mass loss, mass shrinkage ratio, and drying rate were observed [16].

drying cabinet having desiccant unit of dimension 1.2m × 1.2m × 1m and centrifugal blower of capacity 0.1 kw. At the top of the drying chamber, a double glazing with an air gap of 50 mm was provided with an inclination as that of collector (30°) to absorb the incident solar radiation. A perforated tray is provided just below the double glassing to stack 75 kg of solid desiccant material. The dryer is used to dry 20 kg of green peas and pineapple slices. Drying experiments were conducted with and without the integration of desiccant unit. The effect of reflective mirror on the drying potential of desiccant unit was also investigated and found the drying potential of the desiccant material is increased by 20% and the drying time is reduced by 2 h and 4 h for green peas and pineapple, respectively with the inclusion of reflective mirror. The drying efficiency of the system varies between 43% and 55% and the pick-up efficiency varies between 20% and 60%, respectively [17].

Fig. 15 Indirect forced convection, desiccant-integrated solar dryer

Kouhila (2008) have investigated the effect of air temperature and airflow rate on the drying kinetics of Gelidium Sesquipedale in indirect forced convection solar dryer (Fig. 16). Drying unit consists of a solar air collector, Fig. 14 Forced convection and desiccant-integrated solar dryer

an auxiliary heater, a circulation fan, and a drying cabinet.

Shanmugam and Natarajan (2007) have designed, fabricated and investigated the performance of an indirect forced convection, desiccant-integrated solar dryer under hot and humid environment for the typical condition of Chennai India. The system shown in Fig. 15 consists of a flat plate solar air collector of dimension 1.2m × 2.4 m,

and the drying was conducted at 40°C, 50°C, and 60°C in

Mass flow rate of air is varied from 0.0277 to 0.0833 m3/s

which relative humidity had varied from 50% to 57% and observed drying occurred in the falling rate period. They concluded that the main factor influencing the drying kinetics was the drying air temperature [18].

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Conclusion

Fig. 16 An illustration of the photograph of laboratory solar dryer Mohanraj and Chandrashekhar (2009) designed, developed and fabricated an indirect forced convection drier with heat storage material (gravel) for chilli drying and tested in metrological conditions of Pollachi, India. The system shown in Fig. 17 consists of a flat plate solar air heater of dimension 2m × 1m having heat storage unit, a drying chamber made of 2mm thick mild steel sheet with width, depth and height of 1m × 1m × 1.5m respectively and a centrifugal blower. About 40 kg of fresh chillies were dried without any chemical pre-treatment, until the required final moisture content was attained. The fresh chillies were loaded over the trays of drier chamber having about 90% perforation. The chilli was dried from initial moisture content 72.8% to the final moisture content about 9.2% (w.b.) and 9.7% (w.b.) in the bottom and top trays respectively in 24 h with air flow at a rate of 0.25 kg/s. They concluded that, forced convection solar drier is more suitable for producing high quality dried chilli for small holders. Thermal efficiency of the solar drier was estimated to be about 21% with specific moisture extraction rate of about 0.87 kg/kwh. The drying time can also be extended to 4 hours during off sunshine due to heat storage material [19].

Above literature shows the changes in technologies of indirect sola dryer from last few years. Efforts is made all over world around to increase efficiency and drying time thus modern dryers are equipped with fans, efficient collectors, different thermal storage materials, reflectors, auxiliary heat sources, sun tacking systems. These attachments not only provide reliability and better control on drying but also increase the acceptability of solar dryers among farmers. Now a day’s farmers have an option to chose indirect solar dryers either passive or active mode. Passive dryers are used for low moisture content crops whereas active solar dryers are used for high moisture content crops. As well as to obtained higher drying rate, active dryers are also preferred, but it is also fact that their installation increases the cost on poor farmers. So further research on to developed dryers in such a way that they are in simple design, easy to use and maintenance free.

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Fig. 17 Schematic view of experimental setup

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Authors Profile: Vipin Shrivastava is research scholar in Energy Centre of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) Bhopal. His main area of research interest is solar energy. He is graduated in Mechanical Engineering and post graduated in Energy Technology from Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal. He is having over 8 years of experience in teaching and research. He is also certified Energy manager from Bureau of Energy Efficiency India.

Dr. Anil Kumar presently works as Assistant Professor in Department of Energy, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal. He has more than ten years of research and teaching experience in higher technical education. He holds bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering followed by M.Tech. in Energy Technology and Ph.D. degree in solar thermal technologies from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Dr Kumar’s main area of interest is

solar thermal technology, distribution of energy generation, clean energy technologies and application in buildings. He has published several books like, ‘Energy Environment Ecology and Society’, ‘Fundamentals of Mechanical Engineering’, Environmental Science: Fundamental, Ethics & Laws and Advance 'Internal Combustion Engine’. Dr. Kumar has published more than 60 research articles in journals and at International conferences. 01 patent on "Modified Greenhouse Dryer" is also in his credit. Presently Dr. Kumar serves as reviewer to various national and international journals. In his tenure at MANIT, he has supervised 10 M.Tech. students and is supervising 06 PhD. students. Dr. Kumar has carried various experimental projects in the area of solar water heating, solar drying for different crops, active and passive greenhouse dryer, solar collector assisted greenhouse dryers, and ground heat exchangers. Dr. Prashant Baredar is Associate Professor in Energy centre, MANIT, Bhopal. He achieved his Ph.D. degree in Hybrid Energy System from Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya Bhopal. Dr Baredar has 14 years experience in Mechanical Engineering. He got patent over Reconfigurable mechanism of VAWT system. He is on the editorial board of two international journals: BLBIJEST and National Journal of Engineering Science & Management and a reviewer for four journals. He successfully organized five national seminars and conferences on Energy and delivered 15 expert lecturer and invited talks. Dr. Baredar has published 54 research papers in national/international journals and at conferences, and contributed to the books entitled Basic Mechanical Engineering, Practical Journal of Basic Mechanical Engineering and Practical Journal of Basic Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics. He has delivered consultancy projects on ‘Investment Grade Energy Audit of Rajgarh Collectorate Building’ and ‘Solution to reducing bearing temperature in hydro turbine in Indra Sagar Hydro Power’, a number of high level research projects funded by State and Central government and is working on the ‘Sensitivity analysis and optimization of hybrid system of solar, wind and biomass (Rs. 4,52,000)’ project funded by Madhya Pradesh Council of Science and Technology.

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