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Article history: Three identical solar tunnel greenhouse dryers under forced convection mode were installed for drying
Received 24 October 2015 peppermint plants. Thermal analysis of the solar tunnel greenhouse peppermint dryer was investigated
Received in revised form based on thermal balance equations in order to predict its performance. Performance of solar greenhouse
31 January 2016
dryer was studied as a function of change in plant conditions, air flow rates and peppermint loads under
Accepted 19 September 2016
two fan operating systems and evaluated in terms of system temperatures, drying rate, drying efficiency,
product quality and drying cost.
The obtained data revealed that drying peppermint as leaves reduce the drying time and achieve the
Keywords:
Solar tunnel greenhouse dryer
highest percent of volatile oil compared with drying whole plants. Drying peppermint at flow rate of
Drying peppermint plants 2.10 m3/min, load the greenhouse by about 4 kg/m2 and operate the greenhouse by continuously fan
Fan operating systems operating system tends to increase the drying rate by 22.78% and 24.8% for whole plants and leaves
Thermal analysis comparing with periodical system.
Drying efficiency © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Drying costs
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.09.042
0960-1481/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.M. Morad et al. / Renewable Energy 101 (2017) 992e1004 993
period, samples dried in the solar tunnel dryer were completely panel. The contact dryer was operated with one of four drying
protected from insects, rain and dusts, and the dried samples programs. All programs affected the completion duration of
were of high quality in terms of color and hygienic. This system drying, essential oil content, and dried product color differently.
can be used for drying various agricultural products. Also, it is The shortest drying time (15 h) was obtained using the drying
simple in construction and can be constructed at a low cost with program of gradually increased water temperature from 55 to 60
locally obtainable materials [5]. In order to study the drying of to 75e80 C in 6 h and mixing/aeration. However, mixing and
red pepper in open sun and greenhouse conditions drying ex- aeration changed the product color slightly more and partially
periments at constant laboratory conditions and at varying out- increased essential oil loss. These drawbacks can be alleviated
door conditions were carried out. It was found that the by selecting the appropriate duration of mixing and aeration
laboratory model overestimates the drying process under time [10]. Two identical prototype solar dryers (direct and indirect)
varying conditions; a correction factor was then introduced in having the same dimensions were used to dry whole mint.
the formulation of the model to adjust these predictions. The Both prototypes were operated under natural and forced con-
results also have confirmed the consistency of the model at vection modes. The results indicated that drying of mint under
laboratory under constant conditions and in open sun and different operating conditions occurred in the falling rate period,
greenhouse conditions [6]. Drying characteristics of sweet basil where no constant rate period of drying was observed. Also,
leaves were studied and investigated under different drying the obtained data revealed that the drying rate of mint under
conditions. Three different drying air relative humidity (34.0, forced convection was higher than that of mint under natural
27.3 and 22.4%) and three different drying air velocity (1.1, 1.5 and convection [11].
2.0 m/s) were functioned during this laboratory experiment. The It is noticed that renewable energy in food industry particularly
obtained data showed that, the drying rate increased as the air in drying process is growing and mainly in developing countries.
speed increased, although the effect is not as pronounced when Optimization and design tend to reduce the drying time of prod-
the air speed increased from 1.1 to 2.0 m/s [7]. A natural con- ucts for maximum possible efficiency with minimum cost [12]. To
vection solar tunnel greenhouse dryer was designed and devel- overcome the practical difficulties of open sun drying, three
oped for studying the drying characteristics of tomatoes. The identical solar tunnel greenhouse dryers under forced convection
performance of the dryer was studied (drying time and product mode were constructed which basically operates on the principle
quality) in comparison with open sun drying method. It was of green house effect, for drying peppermint whole plants and
found that the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer took only 29 h for leaves depending on thermal analysis. Various operational pa-
reducing the moisture content of tomatoes from 90% (w.b.) to 9% rameters such as plant conditions, peppermint loads, air flow rates
(w.b.) whereas the open sun drying took 74 h for the same. Also,
the quality of dried tomatoes produced from solar tunnel dryer is
much superior compared to that of open sun drying [8]. The Table 1
Physical properties of peppermint plants.
drying method, velocity and temperature of drying air influence
the quantity and quality of the active ingredients present in ar- Physical properties Average value
omatic and medicinal plants. In spite of all technical de- Plant height, cm 27.50
velopments, the choice of the correct drying temperature Average leaf area, cm2 4
remains a central economic and ecological criterion in the drying Thickness of peppermint leaves, mm 0.25
Average number of leaves per plant 15:20
of medicinal plants [9]. A contact dryer that transferred energy to
Fresh mass of whole plant, g 5
drying plants mainly by heat conduction was developed and Fresh mass of 100 leaves, g 15
tested by mixing or not mixing batches of 15 kg of chopped Bulk density of fresh leaves, kg/m3 30.15
peppermint plants. The contact dryer had three main operational Moisture content of whole plant, % 84.43
units: a drying table, a mobile mixing/aeration car, and a control Moisture content of leaves, % 83.52
994 M.M. Morad et al. / Renewable Energy 101 (2017) 992e1004
Table 2
Average hourly solar radiation outside (SRout) and inside (SRin) the solar tunnel greenhouse.
S.Rout S.Rin S.Rout S.Rin S.Rout S.Rin S.Rout S.Rin S.Rout S.Rin
8 430.0 331.1 520.1 405.7 463.0 449.1 471.0 457.3 533.1 421.7
9 493.2 384.7 676.6 540.6 552.0 441.6 563.0 451.0 793.2 622.7
10 715.1 564.9 834.1 667.3 791.0 639.9 675.4 540.3 845.6 668.9
11 823.5 650.1 920.8 744.0 1001.4 813.2 851.0 691.0 953.1 763.5
12 898.6 727.8 946.9 768.9 997.9 819.2 997.1 816.7 1002.4 814.0
13 978.5 802.4 966.6 786.8 922.9 746.6 905.7 745.4 945.7 774.5
14 934.3 742.8 780.8 641.0 832.9 659.0 847.1 689.6 798.6 657.2
15 852.1 678.3 664.9 535.9 708.6 561.2 695.7 675.5 709.3 585.2
16 627.6 497.0 511.9 420.2 445.0 351.1 607.1 479.0 468.6 383.8
17 487.4 399.2 492.7 400.6 276.4 220.9 372.0 290.5 302.4 232.9
18 282.9 223.5 398.5 386.5 192.0 145.9 251.0 195.5 265.4 207.3
Mean 683.9 545.6 665.0 523.8 653.0 531.6 657.8 548.3 692.5 500.8
2.1. Materials
Fig. 5. Effect of peppermint load on system temperatures under continuously fan operating system and air flow rate of 2.10 m3/min.
2.2. Thermal analysis of solar tunnel greenhouse dryer The useful heat gain by a dryer during the drying process can be
expressed as:
Solar dryer receives the solar radiation and convert it into useful
heat to evaporate moisture from the agricultural products. Theo-
retical simulation analysis was used to predict the thermal per- Qc ¼ ma $Cp $ðTai Ta0 Þ (3)
formance of drying peppermint in a greenhouse.
Heat energy balance is applied on the solar tunnel greenhouse
dryer during the experiments according to literature [14e16] in ma ¼ V$A$r (4)
order to predict the thermal performance of drying in a greenhouse
and it can be computed as follows: The total thermal energy (Qev) includes the following parame-
ters; sensible heat which used to raise the temperature of
Q ¼ Qc þ Qev þ Qloss (1) peppermint (qsensible) and latent heat energy which used to
vaporize the water in peppermint (qlatent), can be calculated as
The available solar energy inside the solar tunnel greenhouse follow:
dryer (Q) could be calculated in terms of the solar radiation that
penetrated the cover and the net surface area of the dryer as:
Qev ¼ qlatent þ qsensible (5)
Q ¼ R$Ad (2)
M.M. Morad et al. / Renewable Energy 101 (2017) 992e1004 997
Solar radiation
Fig. 6. Effect of different fan operating systems on system temperatures at air flow rate of 2.10 m3/min and peppermint load of 2 kg/m2.
998 M.M. Morad et al. / Renewable Energy 101 (2017) 992e1004
Air velocity
Drying rate
ðMtþdt Mt Þ
Drying rate ¼ (10)
ðdtÞ
Statistical analysis
Cost of drying
HC
Operational cost per unit of production ¼ (11)
P
Fig. 8. Effect of peppermint load on drying rate under continuously fan operating system and air flow rate of 2.10 m3/min.
2.10 m3/min, results showed that increasing the peppermint load in (operate when the temperatures inside the greenhouse reach 50 C,
a greenhouse, the temperature was decreased. The dryer temper- according to [3]) was higher than the other system. When the fan is
atures were 43.88, 42.60 and 41.48 C at an average ambient tem- working periodically led to raising the temperature inside the dryer
perature of 32.20 C and previously different loads, respectively. collector that in turn affects the bulk temperature of both whole
This is due to increasing the evaporation from the plant with plants and leaves. The bulk temperature of whole plant and leaves
increasing load leading to decreasing the dryer temperature and were (40.82 C and 39.57 C) and (42.88 C and 41.62 C) in
bulk temperature of whole plants and leaves. Drying peppermint of continuous and periodical systems, respectively.
2 kg/m2 either whole plants or leaves consumed one day for drying,
while 4 or 6 kg/m2 consumed two days for drying (Fig. 5). The 3.2. Effect of some different parameters on drying rate
measured temperature at the first stage of drying in second day (8
a.m.) was found in an increment compared to the final reached Figs. 7e9 showed the influence of different parameters on
temperature in the first drying day (6 p.m.). This is may be due to drying rate. The drying rate was decreased continuously with
increase the thermal energy storage inside the greenhouse during drying time. It is obviously that there was not any constant-rate
the day or to transfer excess heat from inside the greenhouse to the drying period and all the drying operations are seen to occur in
heat storage area and thus, the temperature inside the dryer will be the falling rate period, this result is in an agreement with [11].
increased according to [4]. It is obvious that the bulk temperature of Concerning the effect of different air flow rates on drying rate at
leaves was less than whole plant. The daily average bulk temper- 2 kg/m2 loading and continues fan operating system (Fig. 7), results
atures of whole plants and leaves were 40.22 C and 39.47 C at the showed that the drying rate is a strong function of air flow rate and
greenhouse that loaded with 2 kg/m2. time. It is high at the first hour of continuous drying for all tem-
With respect to the effect of fan operating systems, the obtained peratures and decreases with time. This is a result of low internal
data illustrated in Fig. 6 clarified that the air temperatures in the resistance of moisture at the beginning of drying; therefore when
greenhouse that work with periodical fan operating system energy is impacted, moisture can easily move to surface, where
1000 M.M. Morad et al. / Renewable Energy 101 (2017) 992e1004
Fig. 9. Effect of different fan operating systems on drying rate at air flow rate of 2.10 m3/min and peppermint load of 2 kg/m2.
evaporated, this result is a compatible with [19]. As the drying showed that the drying rate was increased by 22.45% for whole
progressed, more energy was required to break the molecular bond plants and 24% for leaves with continuous fan operating system
of the moisture and since constant energy was supplied, it took compared with periodical system. That is because operating the fan
longer time to break, therefore drying rate decreased. Data continuously helps to remove moisture from plants to be in a safe
explained that increasing air flow rate; the average drying rate was limit faster than periodically resulting in acceleration of the drying
increased up to 2.10 m3/min and then decreased. The average drying rate.
rates of leaves was 0.62, 0.70 and 0.57 kg/h under air flow rates of
1.05, 2.10 and 3.15 m3/min, respectively and loading of 2 kg/m2. It is
apparent that the drying rate of peppermint leaves was higher than 3.3. Effect of some different parameters on drying efficiency
whole plants; this is may be due to that the projected area of leaves
facing the forced air was higher than the projected area of the whole Effect of some different parameters on the drying efficiency was
plant, resulting in high drying rate for the leaves. At 2.10 m3/min air showed in Fig. 10.
flow rate, the drying rate of leaves and whole plant were 0.70 and Concerning the effect of air flow rate on daily drying efficiency
0.69, respectively. Whole plants consumed more time for drying under 2 kg/m2, results showed that the highest daily drying effi-
than leaves, this is consistent with [20] who found that the required ciency was obtained at air flow rate of 2.10 m3/min. The values of
drying time increases with increasing surface load and small size drying efficiency were 19.38, 20.63 and 19.05% for leaves; while for
herbs without stem need low drying time. whole plants were 18.89, 19.34 and 18.41% at air flow rates of 1.05,
Relating to the effect of different loads on the drying rate at 2.10 and 3.15 m3/min, respectively. The decrease in an average
2.10 m3/min air flow rate (Fig. 8), the curves showed only a falling available solar energy inside the solar tunnel greenhouse dryer that
drying rate period. Shortens of constant rate period associated with loading with leaves was higher than the decrease in total thermal
low surface area load to area shrinkage, which caused the drying energy (Qev), thus the daily average efficiency of leaves was higher
rate to decrease continuously [20]. The drying rate was decreased than whole plants.
by increasing the peppermint loads. It was 0.49, 0.30 and 0.29 kg/h In respect to the effects of peppermint loads on the drying ef-
for whole plants and 0.53, 0.34 and 0.32 kg/h for leaves under loads ficiency at air flow rate of 2.10 m3/min, results clarified that the
of 2, 4 and 6 kg/m2, in that order. daily drying efficiency of different crop loads was affected by the
Regarding the effect of fan operating systems on drying rate at mass of peppermint in dryer, initial and final moisture content and
air flow rate of 2.10 m3/min and loading of 2 kg/m2 (Fig. 9). Results ambient conditions (solar radiation intensity and temperature). The
daily average total heat energy utilized in drying process of
M.M. Morad et al. / Renewable Energy 101 (2017) 992e1004 1001
Fig. 10. Effect of air flow rate, peppermint load and fan operating system on drying efficiency.
peppermint leaves during the experimental period were 2.14, 2.54 Concerning the effect of fan operating systems, it was noted that
and 3.30 kW h at different loads of 2, 4 and 6 kg/m2, respectively. the daily drying efficiency of continuous system was higher than
The average daily drying efficiency were 18.25, 20.18 and 28.44% for that of periodical system, where the continuous system increased
whole plants and 18.73, 22.33 and 28.94% for leaves under previous the drying efficiency by 7.46% and 10.64% for whole plants and
loads, respectively. leaves comparing with periodical system because the plants in the
Table 3
Effect of air flow rate on volatile oil percentage of peppermint under continuously fan operating system.
dryer a large amount leading to a lack of thermal efficiency of this Replicates Fan operating system
system compared with the other system. Continuous Periodical
Table 4
Effect of peppermint load on volatile oil percentage of peppermint.
2 4 6
Fig. 11. Effect of air flow rate, peppermint load and fan operating systems on drying cost.
Drying peppermint at air flow rate of 2.10 m3/min where reduce References
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