DESIGN, SIMULATION, CONSTRUCTION AND PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF MIXED-MODE SOLAR CROP DRYERS WITH AND WITHOUT THERMAL STORAGE

📄 Project Abstract

Agricultural products upon harvesting have high moisture content which makes it unsafe for storage as the moisture in the crops attracts microorganisms which result in deterioration of the products. The major shortcoming of multiple trays drying is uneven drying of the products being dried on different trays.Solar dryers with and without thermal storage materials were developed, simulated and tested under the same meteorological conditions of Zaria and their performance evaluation were carried out. The average drying rates, collector efficiencies, and drying efficiencies of the solar crop dryers with and without thermal storage are 2.82×10-5 kg/s and 2.55×10-5 kg/s, 78.25% and 42.20%, 29.15 % and 25.35% respectively. During the experiment, the drying rates do not vary much with the coordinate positions of the trays. The performances of the solar dryers were simulated under varying meteorological conditions of Zaria. TRANSYS 16.0software was used to simulate the collectors outlet air te...