Design and Development of A Desiccant Integrated Solar Dryer

• Published in: Environment and ecology Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 1319 - 1324
• Main Authors: Yadav, Nitesh, Attkan, Aron Kumar, Yadav, Yogender Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.12.2014
• Subjects: India
• ISSN: 0970-0420

Desiccant integrated solar dryer was designed, developed and its performance was studied under the climatic conditions of Hisar, India. The system consists of flat plate solar collector, drying chamber and desiccant unit. The desiccant unit was integrated within the drying system to continue the drying process through the night-time. The average drying air temperature and collector thermal efficiency of dryer were 48.1 [degrees]C and 62.12% at air mass flow rate of 0.020 kg/s. During off-sunshine hours the average dryer temperature was 5-8[degrees]C higher by the average ambient temperature. During sunshine hours the hot air from flat plate solar collector was forced into the drying chamber and simultaneously the desiccant unit received solar radiations directly for regeneration. In off-sunshine hours, the dryer was operated by circulating the air inside the drying chamber through the desiccant bed by blower fan in a closed loop. Performance of desiccant integrated solar dryer was observed at three different air mass flow rates of 0.010 kg/s, 0.015 kg/s and 0.020 kg/s for day and night operations.