Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (Jun 2024)
Performance evaluation and analysis of different simple thermal modeling of greenhouse dryer
Abstract
To provide food supply chains, reduce losses from various crops after the harvesting process, and also to preserve vegetable and fruit crops purchased for consumption from rotting and not being wasted. The drying process is one of the most appropriate ways to solve such problems. In this research, several simple thermal modeling methods were proposed to perform the drying process through open sun drying (OSD) under forced pressure (FGD) and natural convection (NGD). This study was conducted at the King Faisal University Training and Research Station (25.4° latitude). North, longitude 49.6° east, height 142 meters above sea level). The thermal performance analysis of the models was evaluated by calculating the amount of solar radiation, air temperature, product temperature, moisture evaporation rate, and wind speed. The results obtained showed that drying inside the greenhouse is the best alternative to drying under direct sunlight, so that the maximum temperatures were obtained, ranging between 55 to 52 in FGD and 40−45 inside NGD. Also, the heat transfer coefficient was highest in the amount of moisture removed from the product, reaching its maximum. The weight of the product was reduced to 83%, 80 and 73%, in GFD, NGD and OSD, respectively Accordingly, it was found that drying gave the highest expected results, and the temperature of the product ranged between 9.25 to 14.36 and 4.93 to 10.32, and the correlation coefficient ranged between 0.95−0.52 and 0.95. −0.89 at OSD and NGD respectively. Moisture evaporation from the product is 28.92−2.77 at NGD and moisture evaporation exerted for FGD is 31.35 and the correlation coefficient for the product at FGD ranges from 0.93−0.84. The product and greenhouse temperature range are between 0.99−0.96. The moisture evaporation rate indicating that the values obtained were well matched. Finally, the economic analysis of the different methods of drying was done through a mathematical model.
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