PERFORMANCE POTENTIAL OF HEAT PUMP DRYING CYCLES

Abstract

There are two thermodynamic models of the closed and vented heat pump drying process described in the paper. The models have been used for optimization of process design parameters with respect to drying rate and energy efficiency, respectively. The optimization was performed in points of parametric space defined by refrigerant and air flow rates. Results of the optimization shows the same maximal drying rate performance for closed cycle and both objective functions. There is higher potential of drying time reduction for vented cycle in comparison to closed cycle. Results of the optimization showed strong correlation of the MER parameter with refrigerant flow rate for both closed and vented heat pump drying cycle. There is same maximal MER value obtained for both MER and SMER optimized cycle parameters.

Keywords

• heat pump
• drying
• drying rate
• energy efficiency