Thermal Evaluation of the Indirect Air Heating System in a Solar Thermal Drying Plant for Agricultural Products
Abstract
This paper presents an indirect air heating system coupled to a tunnel chamber for dehydration of agricultural products. The energy for the drying process comes from a solar water heating system (92.4 m2) with thermal storage or directly. The water heating system has thermal efficiencies between 47-57%, depending on the temperatures reached by the water in the hot water storage tank. The indirect air heating system is operated by means of a finned and tube heat exchanger that has an average heat transfer capacity of 50 kW, delivering temperatures at the entrance of the tunnel between 45-75 ° C. The heat transfer efficiency of the water-air exchanger is around 85%.