INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH, VOL.

20,767-770 (1996)

ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF A SOLAR DRYING SYSTEM

CIGDEM TIRIS, MUSTAFA TIRIS AND IBRAHIM DINCER

TUBITAK-MannaraResearch Center, Gebze 41470, Kocaeli, Turkey

SUMMARY
A solar collector, part of a drying system using solar energy as a heat source, was developed and reported previously
and used in product-drying applications. In this study, energy efficiency analyses of the drying system in terms of the
collector efficiency were investigated. The results obtained show that the present collector used in this solar drying
system is an efficient and effective unit for practical drying applications.

KEY WORDS: solar energy; energy use; dryer; solar air heater; collector efficiency

1. INTRODUCTION
Solar drying is a well-known food preservation technique to reduce the moisture contents of agricultural
products to that which prevents deterioration within a period of time regarded as the safe storage period.
Generally, the agricultural products are dried either naturally on paved ground in the sun or with a
drying system using an energy source. The natural sun drying method, used extensively all over the world
for thousands of years, has some inherent disadvantages: (i) damage to the product by rodents, birds and
animals; (ii) degradation through exposure to rain, storm, dew and wind; (iii) contamination by dirt, dust,
wind-blown debris and environmental pollution; (iv) splitting of grain, bleaching and loss of germination
capability due to overdrying; (v) insect infestation; (vi) growth of micro-organisms; and (vii) additional
losses during storage due to insufficient or non-uniform drying. On the other hand, this method is still
widely used as a preservation technique in most parts of the world. In practice, dryers using fossil fuels or
electrical energy are not appropriate for the farmers for the following reasons: (i) they are expensive in
terms of investment and energy costs; (ii) skilled personnel are required for operation and maintenance;
and (iii) their availability and reliability cannot match that of the natural sun drying method (Mahapatra
and Imre, 1990; Foster and McKenzie, 1980).
The objective of a dryer is to supply the product with more heat than is available under ambient
conditions thus sufficiently increasing the vapour pressure of the moisture held within the product to
enhance moisture migration from within the product, and significantly decreasing the relative humidity of
the drying air to increase its moisture carrying capability and to ensure a sufficiently low equilibrium
moisture content. For many countries, however, of the alternative energy sources being considered, solar
energy appears to be the most attractive source to provide the low to moderate temperature drying
capacity needed. Solar dryers are a promising means, especially for tropical countries, to meet there
requirements since the available solar energy in most cases is sufficient to cover the heat requirements of
small dryers during daytime operation. In solar drying, solar energy is used as either the sole source of
the required heat or as a supplemental source, and the air flow can be generated by either forced or
natural convection. The heating procedure could involve either the passage of pre-heated air through the
product or directly exposing the product to solar radiation or combination of both. The major require-

*All correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. Ibrahim Diner, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Victoria,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3P6, Canada

CCC 0363-907X/96/090767-04 Received 17 November 1994

0 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Revised 5 January 1995
768 C. TIRIS, M. TIRIS AND I. DINCER

ment is the transfer of heat to the moist product by convection and conduction from a surrounding air
mass having a temperature above that of the product, or by radiation, mainly from the sun and to a small
extent from surrounding hot surfaces, or conduction from heated surfaces in contact with the product.
For economic reasons, maximum drying rates are usually desired, though with due regard to product
quality. The heat transfer and evaporation rates must be closely controlied to guarantee both optimum
drying rates and product quality. In this respect, there has been an increasing tendency towards more
highly efficient solar air heaters since individual components can be designed to optimal performance
(Norton, 1992; Kahveci el al., 1992).
Various types of solar dryer have been developed, and their technical and economical aspects have
been discussed in detail by, for example, Lutz and Muhlbauer (1986), Lutz et a1 (1987), Exell and
Kornsakoo (19761, Buschermohle et al. (19871, Kyburz and Keller (1987) and Tiris (1990). In this paper,
an investigation of the collector efficiencies of the solar drying system reported previously by Tiris et al.
(1994) is presented.

2. EXPERIMENTAL
The experimental equipment used for the present investigation is essentially similar to that described
earlier by Tiris et al. (1994), who gave detailed descriptions of the experimental apparatus and procedure.
Here, we briefly present the collector efficiency tests. In the literature, there are several standard test
procedures for rating solar collectors. In the present study, the collector efficiency tests were carried out
based on the ASHRAE 93-77 and TS (Turkish standards) 4801 (this is similar to the original ASHRAE
93-77). In accordance with ASHRAE 93-77, to determine the energy efficiencies, the following quantities
were measured: air flow rates, the temperatures of the air entering and leaving the collector, solar
radiation, ambient temperatures, wind velocities and pressure drops. A fan controlled by a manual valve
was used to force the drying air through the collector to the air outlet of the drying chamber to achieve
the desired uniform air distribution. An electrical resistance heater was used to select the correct air inlet
temperature of the solar heater. The air temperature was measured by an analog device for temperature
control. The flow rate of the air was measured by a digital flowmeter placed at the entrance of the solar
air heater. Pt-100 temperature sensors were positioned at the inlet and outlet portions of the solar air
heater to measure air temperatures. Total solar radiation intensities were measured with a star type
pyranometer that had the same slope characteristic as the solar collector. Wind velocities were registered
with an anemometer at ten minute intervals. To measure the relative humidity of the drying air and
ambient air, capacitive humidity sensors were used. Pressure gauges were used to measure pressure
drops. The following requirements were considered: (i) the average solar radiation must be greater than
630 W m-2, (ii) the incident angle between the sun and the outward drawn normal from the collector
must be less than 30"; (iii) the air flow rate must be steady to within f1.0% for whole test; (iv) the range
of ambient temperature for the entire series must be less than 30°C; (v) the wind velocity must be lower
than 5.4 m s-' and (vi) for each test, at least 16 data points are required.
Detailed information about the collector thermal tests and performance evaluations may be found in a
review study obtained by Sodha and Chandra (1994).

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

It is generally believed that the energy efficiency of a solar collector is the major requirement for
determination of the thermal performance of a complete solar drying system. It is therefore important
that this energy efficiency be presented in a form useful for existing and projected solar thermal system
design methods.
As described earlier by Tiris et al. (1994), the air-inlet temperatures were selected to be between 30
and 50°C at mass flow rates of 150,200 and 250 kg m-2 h-' and maintained constant during the test, and
 SOLAR DRYING SYSTEM EFFICIENCY 769

for each test the mass flow rate of air was maintained constant. The ambient temperatures ranged
between 5 and 32 "C.
In this way, the energy efficiency profiles of the solar collector were determined.
The collector thermal efficiency 7) is determined from the useful heat qu divided by the total solar
radiation qr as follows:
7)= 4u/4r (1)
The useful heat passed to the air is defined as
qu = maC,(To- Ti)
where ma is the air flow rate, (kg m-* s-'), C , is the specific heat (J kg-' "C-'), Ti is the air inlet
temperature ("C)and To is the air outlet temperature ("(2).
The temperature parameter 6 ("C W-' m-2), which is a combination of the average fluid temperature
in the collector T,, ambient temperature Ta and qr, is expressed by the following equation:
I = (Tm - Ta)/qr (3)
where T, = (To + Ti)/2.
The collector inlet and outlet temperatures (Ti, To) and ambient temperature Ta were measured at a
constant air flow rate. The solar radiation intensities were also measured. Using these values in equations
(1) and (2), the thermal efficiencies of the solar collector (area: 1.15 m') were determined
The variations of the energy efficiency of the solar collector against the temperature parameter at air
flow rates of 150, 200 and 250 kg m-' h-' ( 5 0.042, 0.055 and 0.070 kg m-' s - l ) are shown graphically
in Figure 1. As can be seen, the collector efficiencies range between 0.57 and 0.75 at 0.042 kg m-2 s-l
0.28 and 0.79 at 0.055 kg m-' s-l and 0.59 and 0.81 to 0.070 kg m-' s-I. The measurements of the inlet
and outlet temperatures of the collector, ambient temperatures, and solar radiation were measured
between 1O:OO a.m. and 16:OO p.m. The inlet/outlet temperatures ranged between 35.7/42.2 and
45*5/60*6"Cat a flow rate of 0.42 kg m-2 s-', 33.7/41.4 to 54.0/63.5"C at 0.55 kg m-2 sC1 and 36.3/48.1

0.9-

0.8- + ++ + + X

0.7 -

X
> 0.6- x+o"
Y
gw 0.5 -
L
L X
IJJ 0.4 -

0.3-
o m=O.042kg/m%

o.lt
0'
x m=O.O55kgm%
+

I
m=0.070k@$6

I 1 1 , , I
0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
TEMPERATURE PARAMETER (CMlIm2)
Figure 1. Variation of collector efficiency versus temperature at air flow rates of 0042,0055 and 0070 kg rn-* s- '
770 C. TIRIS, M. TIRIS AND I. DINCER

to 44.5/57.2 at 0.070 kg m-’ s - l , while the solar radiation intensity varied between 630 and 957 W m-2.
Except for three efficiency values measured at m = 0.055 kg m-’ s-l, the efficiency of the present
collector combined with a drying unit varied between 0.57 and 0.81. Actually, the efficiency values
obtained may be higher than those possible in practice for the following three reasons: (i) the present
solar air heater is a micro-scale thermal system; (ii) there were possible temperature measurement errors;
and (iii) it was assumed that there was no energy loss (i.e. 100% efficiency). At this point, the energy
efficiency of a collector is sometimes defined in the form of the Hottel-Whillier equation (Sodha and
Chandra, 1994):
77 = (%I/%) - w (4)
where U is the collector loss coefficient (W m-’ “C-’ 1.
The effect of the U,$ term on the energy efficiency of the collector may range between 0.01 and 0.20,
depending on the experimental conditions and the measurements. For this study, it had an approximate
average value of 0.10. Even in this case, this efficiency ranged between 0.47 and 0.71. In this respect, it
can be considered that the present simple solar air heater is a highly efficient thermal system and indeed
capable of drying agricultural products efficiently. In practice, in order to determine the energy efficiency
of a collector the use of equation (1) is much more common.

4. CONCLUSIONS
An investigation has been conducted to determine the collector efficiency of a solar drying system. The
collector efficiency particularly ranged between 0.57 and 0.81 for air flow rates of 0.042, 0.055 and 0.070
kg m-’ s - l , which was satisfactory for heating the drying air. It is believed that this solar air heater,
which is part of a drying system using solar energy as a renewable energy source for heat, offers a very
cost effective alternative to countries employing solar drying applications.

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