Experimental Investigation of the Solar Drying and Solar Collector Design for Drying Agricultural Product (Mint)

Abstract

Drying is basically a phenomenon of removal of liquid by evaporation from a solid. In the following section an attempt is made to provide a concise overview of the fundamental principles of drying process for agricultural product (Mint). Drying basically comprises of two fundamental and simultaneous processes: heat is transferred to evaporate liquid, and mass is transferred as a liquid or vapor within and the solid as a vapor from the surface. The experimental study is investigated in the Biskra city of Algeria for drying mint in the drying room which it integrated with a solar air collector (new design). We have to spread the produce on a suitable surface and let it dry in the drying room and added the study of thermal performance of solar air collector and trying with three different airflow rates, namely, 0.018, 0.028 and 0.034 kg/s are conducted. Finally, the results have been illustrated with mass water content, product temperature, drying room temperature, outlet temperature in both solar collector and drying room and enthalpy of solar collector and drying room.