jailcd2024032: Employing A Fan to Enhance the Thermal Performance of the Solar Dryer with Thermal Energy Storage

Abstract

Solar drying systems with phase change materials (SDS-PCM) are widely used in agriculture to dry vegetables, fruits, and grains due to the advantage of decreasing excessive air temperature in the drying chamber at noon and prolonging the operation period. However, natural convection solar dryers have low heat output efficiency due to low airflow rates. Improving the airflow rates of the solar drying system is important to optimize the solar drying system. Using a booster fan enables a large and consistent airflow to the solar
drying system. To explore the effect of a pressurized fan on a thermal energy storage solar drying system, integrating the forced convection storage solar drying system (FSDS-PCM) was established by referring to a solar drying system with thermal energy storage. The experimental results showed that the fan presence improved the heat collection efficiency of the solar drying system. The pressurized fan increased the outlet air velocity from 0.35 m/s to 1.5 m/s. The heat collection efficiency increased from 28.2% to 54.2%, and the daily
heat production increased by 91.56%. FSDS-PCM reduced the drying time by 3 hours. In addition, fans increased the average air temperature in the drying chamber by 1.2°C.