A review on indirect type solar dryers for agricultural crops – Dryer setup, its performance, energy storage and important highlights

CFD modeling and evaluation the performance of a solar cabinet dryer equipped with evacuated tube solar collector and thermal storage system

The development and implementation of processes to store and/or transport thermal energy can be very useful to regulate the temperature of a system and to make a better use of renewable and non-renewable energy resources. It has been shown that some microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs) and nanoencapsulated phase change materials (NPCMs) can be used to store and/or transport thermal energy efficiently as latent heat. The composition of these materials has an effect on several properties, like their thermal conductivity, that can affect their performance. Some strategies to modify the composition of these materials developed in the last decade can be useful to improve the characteristics of these materials. A more complex composition can also enable these materials to carry out other functions, besides storing thermal energy, that can improve their performance and extend the range of possible applications of these materials. This work gathers some of these recent developments to emphasize how some of these strategies can be useful to improve the characteristics of these materials and the potential of multifunctional MPCMs and NPCMs in several applications like solar photo-thermal conversion and catalysis.

Recent developments in the synthesis of microencapsulated and nanoencapsulated phase change materials

Energy and exergy analyses of drying medicinal herb in a novel forced convection solar dryer integrated with SHSM and PCM

Energy-exergy and sustainability analysis of a PV-driven quadruple-flow solar drying system

Experimental investigation of an indirect solar dryer integrated with phase change material for drying valeriana jatamansi (medicinal herb)

In the present work, the heat transfer through a solar thermal collector (STC) provided with jet air impingement on the absorbent plate fitted with multi V-shaped protrusion ribs is investigated experimentally. The investigation is carried out for geometric parameters such as Relative width ratio (WPR/WAPR), Relative protrusion rib height (hPR/dPR), Relative pitch ratio (PPR/hPR), Angle of attack (αPR) respectively. The values of the streamwise pitch ratio (XSW/dh) = 0.40, spanwise pitch ratio (YSW/dh) = 0.85 and jet diameter ratio (dj/dh) = 0.064 are kept constant. The overall performance of STC is effectively evaluated by varying Reynolds number (Re) in the range 2500–35,000. The results obtained from the experiments shows that the impingement jets flow on multi V-shaped protrusion ribs absorber plate accelerated the heat transfer through the solar collector channel. The optimal augmentation is obtained at WPR/WAPR= 5, hPR/dPR= 0.9, PPR/hPR = 8 and αPR = 65° respectively. Thermal-hydraulic performance parameter ( ηPR) has also been investigated and the maximum value of 3.44 is obtained for the range of parameters studied.

Performance investigation of a solar thermal collector provided with air jets impingement on multi V-shaped protrusion ribs absorber plate

Present investigation studied the influence of flow and geometric factors on the behavior of solar air passage (SAP) offered among the circular impingement air jets. The experimentation is performed for the variant criterion which is relevant to establish the best design of SAP. The experimental examination shows that the air impingement jet improves the thermal efficiency of a collector but at concurrent period friction factor rate also increases which reduces the whole functioning of arrangement. To overcome this analytical hierarchy process and order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (AHP-TOPSIS) technique is adopted using different performance condition in order to find out the best set of geometric parameters which provides the highest thermal efficiency and lowest friction factor within the SAP. The superlative set of geometric parameters achieved as a response of considered process is relative width ratio of 3, the relative height ratio of 1.0, relative pitch ratio of 9.5, the angle of arc 550 and tream Reynolds number of 19,000 respectively.

Adit Rana

Papers

Experimental investigation of an indirect solar dryer integrated with phase change material for drying valeriana jatamansi (medicinal herb)

Performance investigation of a solar thermal collector provided with air jets impingement on multi V-shaped protrusion ribs absorber plate

Optimization of multiple arcs protrusion obstacle parameters using AHP-TOPSIS approach in an impingement jet solar air passage