Studies on the solar dryer with desiccant bed and reflective mirror

Abstract

Drying of agricultural products is an energy intensive operation High prices and shortages in fossil fuels increase the emphasis on using solar energy as an alternative source especially in the developing countries In this newlinerespect a forced convection and desiccant integrated solar drying system with and without reflective mirror has been fabricated to investigate its performance under the hot and humid climatic conditions of Chennai India The system consists of a solar flat plate air collector drying chamber desiccant unit centrifugal blower and reversible fan A forced draught 0 1 kW centrifugal blower was used to supply the ambient air at the required the flow rate A single pass single glazed conventional solar air collector was used for gaining useful energy from the incident solar radiation The drying chamber was fabricated using wooden materials with insulated inner walls was used for drying of products newline