Energy and Exergy Analysis on Drying of Banana Using Indirect Type Natural Convection Solar Dryer

Abstract

Energy and exergy analysis, in the thermodynamics, is an important tool used to predict the performance of drying system. In this work, energy and exergy analyses are made during the drying process of banana using an indirect type passive solar dryer. Solar flat plate air collector is used to heat the air. Banana gets sufficiently dried at temperatures between 28 and 82 °C. Solar radiation is measured and it is ranged from 335 to 1210 W/m². Using the first law of thermodynamics, energy analysis was carried out to estimate the amounts of energy gained from solar air heater. Also, applying the second law of thermodynamics, exergy analysis was carried out to determine exergy losses during the drying process. The exergy losses varied from 3.36 to 25.21 kJ/kg. In particular, the exergy efficiency values vary from 7.4 to 45.32%.

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Notes on contributors

Abhay Lingayat

Abhay Bhanudas Lingayat is a Ph.D. student at National Institute of Technology Warangal, India, under the supervision of Dr. V. P. Chandramohan and Co-Supervision of Dr. V. R. K. Raju. He received B.E. in Mechanical Engineering in 2010, M. Tech. in Heat Power Engineering in 2014, both from Kavikulguru Institute of Technology and Science, Ramtek, Nagpur. He is currently working on experimental and numerical analysis of solar dryer for drying of agricultural products.

V. P. Chandramohan

V. P. Chandramohan is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at National Institute of Technology Warangal, India. He received his M.E. degree from Annamalai University, Tamilnadu in 2002 and his Ph.D. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2012. He has been teaching at National Institute of Technology Warangal since 2013. His research contributions have been in the field of computational fluid dynamics, convection and conduction heat transfer, drying, and simultaneous solution of heat and mass transfer, solar energy, alternative fuels and hydrogen fuel cell. He has received various awards such as Sathik prize, Sciencedirect Top 25 Award, and DST Empowerment scheme award. He is currently working on solar dryer and solar updraft tower.

V. R. K. Raju

V. Rajesh Khana Raju is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at National Institute of Technology Warangal, India. He received his M.Tech. from Jadavpur University in 2000 and his Ph.D. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in 2011. He has been teaching at National Institute of Technology Warangal, India since 2012. His research contributions have been in the field of fluid dynamics, heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics, combustion, microfluidics, and solar drying. He is currently working on microfluidics and solar drying.