Renewable Energy | 2021
Design and performance evaluation of an evacuated tube solar dryer for drying garlic clove
Abstract
Abstract The design and development of an evacuated tube collector-based solar dryer with heat pipe for drying of garlic clove were carried out in the present work. For the experimental performance evaluation, garlic cloves (10kg) were dried from 69% to 8% moisture content (wb). The thermal performance of the evacuated tube solar dryer (ETSD) was tested on no-load and full load conditions at different air flow velocities (1, 2, and 3 m/s). The highest temperature of 86.7°C, at no load condition, was obtained in the drying chamber at 2 m/s air flow velocity with the maximum solar radiation of 1360 W/m2 while the maximum peak sun hour was 6.27. The maximum drying rate, solar collector efficiency, and dryer efficiency were found to be 1.56 kg H2O/kg dry solid/h, 42.56%, and 56% respectively at 2 m/s air flow velocity. The highest average exergy efficiency of 56.59% was found at 2 m/s, and the average lowest exergy loss of 4.74 W was found at 1 m/s. ETSD performed efficiently at 2 m/s air velocity and was capable to dry the garlic clove within 8 h. The payback period of the developed ESTD was found to be 1.3 years.