International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology | 2021
Study on Performance of Solar Dryer with Thermal Storage and Desiccant
Abstract
This paper presents experimentation on model developed to compare the performance of solar drying with and without dehumidification system. Basic components of system consist of flat plate solar collector, drying chamber, desiccant bed and blower to maintain forced air circulation inside the system. Humidity of fresh air supplied to collector reduced by passing it through two stationary desiccant beds, which work alternately for adsorption and regeneration. Exhaust heat used for regeneration thereby overall efficiency of system increased. Drying rate obtained from solar drying with desiccant bed, solar drying without desiccant bed and open sun drying are 0.1094 Kg/hour, 0.09375 Kg/hour, and 0.0775 Kg/hour respectively. It concluded that by use of desiccant bed increases drying rate that takes near about three hours less to reach same moisture content compared with solar drying without desiccant bed. From results obtained it further found that desiccant bed based solar dryer gives higher drying chamber efficiency than without desiccant bed system due to increased moisture pick-up capacity. Also, in built latent heat thermal storage was able to provide 7 to 8 0C higher temperature than surrounding after sunset for about 2 hours.