Optimization and Comparison Studies of Solar Tunnel Greenhouse Dryer Coupled with and without Biomass Backup Heater
S. Arun1, K. Velmurugan2, K. Vinoth Kumar3
1S. Arun, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, Pollachi, India.
2K. Velmurugan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, Pollachi, India.
3K. Vinoth Kumar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, Pollachi, India.
Manuscript received on October 04, 2014. | Revised Manuscript received on October 12, 2014. | Manuscript published on October 15, 2014. | PP: 41-47 | Volume-2 Issue-11, October 2014. | Retrieval Number: K07361021114/2014©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: A natural convection solar tunnel greenhouse dryer coupled with biomass heater was designed and developed in Nallampalli region of Pollachi, Tamil Nadu (India) and also a natural convection solar tunnel greenhouse dryer without biomass heater (existing dryer) was designed and developed in Negamam region of Pollachi, Tamil Nadu (India) for the comparison and optimization of the existing solar tunnel greenhouse dryer by conducting a drying test in both the dryers with coconut as the drying product during the month of March, 2014. About 5000 coconuts were loaded into those two respective dryers and it was repeated for three trails. The mass of fuel added to the biomass heater was about 7.5kg/hr. The biomass heater was ignited when there is a fall in sunshine (after 5PM) in order to maintain the temperature inside the dryer. The drying parameters (product quality and drying time) were also taken into account for the optimization of the existing dryer. The solar tunnel dryer coupled with the biomass heater dried the coconuts which has an initial moisture content of 53.84% to a final moisture content of 7.003% over a time period of 44 hours whereas the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer without the biomass heater took 56 hours for reducing the moisture content to the same level. The drying time of the coconuts in the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer coupled with the biomass heater was less than that of the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer without the biomass heater which is due to the effect of biomass heater that supplied sufficient heat to the dryer so that the temperature inside the dryer would be increasing steadily even at night time. Also the quality of the coconuts obtained from the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer coupled with biomass heater was found to be superior to that of the coconuts obtained from the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer without the biomass heater which is due to the high temperature and low relative humidity prevailed all the time inside the dryer irrespective of fall in sunshine.
Keywords: Biomass backup heater, coconuts, drying time, moisture content, open sun drying, product quality, relative humidity, solar tunnel greenhouse dryer, temperature.