Experimental and Modeling Study of Peanut Drying in a Solar Dryer with a Novel Type of a Drying Chamber

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study is to investigate the experimental performance of a solar dryer by using a novel type of a drying chamber for increasing the drying performance and ensuring homogeneous drying. The drying system (SDS) consisted of a new type of a drying chamber and a solar air collector, which were designed, made, and tested in Osmaniye, Turkey. The analyses of Computational Fluid Dynamics were carried out to demonstrate the advantage of the designed drying chamber over the tunnel type drying chamber, which is commonly used in peanut drying. The drying experiments were conducted using in-shell peanut to observe the performance of the system. The drying procedure was performed in the form of open sun drying (OSD), and the results of drying kinetics such as moisture ratio (MR), drying rate (DR), and heat transfer coefficient (h_c) obtained from both drying methods were compared. The MR and DR values obtained during the drying experiments were estimated using different models such as mathematical, multiple linear regression (MLR), decision tree (DT), and the support vector machine (SVM). It was observed from the numerical results that the products can dry more homogenously and effectively with the newly designed drying chamber compared to the conventional tunnel type drying chamber. The results of the drying experiments showed that the products dried earlier and more regularly through the SDS compared to the OSD. The DR and h_c values were found 0.0051E-01 (g_w/g_dm)/min and 1.5727 W/m²°C for SDS and 0.0039E-01 (g_w/g_dm)/min and 1.4664 W/m²°C for OSD, respectively. The models that best estimated the experimentally obtained MR and DR values for peanuts dried with the SDS proved to be the Random Tree Model (R² = 0.9972) and Quintic Model (R² = 0.8551), respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Drying
• experimental
• modeling
• peanut
• solar energy

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Scientific Research Projects Unit of Osmaniye Korkut Ata University (OKÜBAP) within the scope of the project, namely OKÜBAP-2014-PT3-032. We thank OKÜBAP for their support. We are also very grateful to the reviewers for their valuable comments, which have been utilized to improve the quality of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

NOMENCLATURE

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Scientific Research Projects Unit (OKUBAP) [OKUBAP-2014-PT3-032].

Notes on contributors

Ertaç Hürdoğan

Ertaç Hürdoğan: He completed his Bachelor Education at Çukurova University, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2000 and started to work as a Research Assistant in the same Department. He completed his Master's Degree and PhD in Çukurova University, Institute of Science and Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2003 and 2010, respectively. He became an Associate Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2017. He was appointed as Associate Professor at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Energy Systems Engineering in 2018. Since 2013, he has been working as the Director of Energy Education-Etude Application and Research Center (ENERMER) at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ertaç Hürdoğan is the author/co-author of more than 110 scientific publications, and his study areas are energy efficiency, renewable energy, heating, cooling and air conditioning systems, desalination systems, drying systems, climate data analysis, energy-exergy analysis and heat transfer.

Kamil Neyfel Çerçi

Kamil Neyfel Çerçi: He completed his Bachelor Education at Fırat University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2011. He started to work as a Research Assistant at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University in 2014. He completed his Master’s degree in Institute of Natural and Applied Sciences, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fırat University in 2015. He completed his PhD Education in Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Institute of Natural and Applied Sciences, Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2020. He was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Faculty of Engineering, Tarsus University in 2020. His study areas are energy, heat and mass transfer, thermodynamics, heating, cooling, air conditioning systems, drying, thermal insulation, heat recovery, desiccant, artificial neural networks, machine learning and CFD analysis.

Dogan Burak Saydam

Doğan Burak Saydam: He completed his Bachelor Education at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Energy Systems Engineering in 2016. He completed his Master's degree in Energy Systems Engineering, Institute of Science, at the same University in 2020. He was appointed as Teaching Assistant to Energy Education-Etude Application and Research Center at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University in 2021. He is currently continuing his PhD Education at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Institute of Science and Technology, Department of Energy Systems Engineering. His study areas are thermal insulation, renewable energy, heat transfer, energy efficiency, drying, PIV and flow control techniques.

Coskun Ozalp

Coskun Ozalp: He completed his Bachelor Education at Çukurova University Mechanical Engineering Department in 1997. He completed his Master’s degree and PhD in Çukurova University Mechanical Engineering Department in 2000 and 2006, respectively. He worked as an Assistant Professor at Sivas Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Technical Education between 2006-2009. He has been working at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Faculty of Engineering, Energy Systems Engineering since 2009. He became Associate Professor of Energy Technologies in Mechanical Engineering in 2014. In 2019, he was appointed as a Professor at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Energy Systems Engineering. His study areas are renewable energy, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, air conditioning, thermal insulation, energy efficiency, PIV and flow control techniques.