Design and Evaluation of a Compact Thermal Storage System Using River Stones for a Continuous Drying Process of Agricultural Products in Peru
Abstract
Drying only during the day is a problem for the solar drying process of several products in Peru, for this reason a low-cost thermal storage system that can carry out a continuous drying process has been designed. This system consists of an insulated bed filled with storage material, 400 kg stones of the river, and a solar air heater with 2.8 m2 of area to extract thermal energy from the sun for the air. The system was tested with two air flows in mass, from 0.0311 kg/s and 0.0251 kg/s, to determine the optimal speed. The maximum temperature obtained in the stones was 50.3 ° C, 30 degrees more than the ambient temperature. In addition, the maximum energy obtained is given at 3:30 p.m. The discharge efficiency was 57.7% and the collection of 39.4% taking into account that the heat loss found was 1 ° C per hour. The experimental results were similar to the theoretical results with a maximum difference of 4.1 ° C.