Renewable Energy 163 (2021) 495e503

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Energy and exergy analyses of carob pulp drying system based on a

solar collector
Zakaria Tagnamas , Hamza Lamsyehe , Haytem Moussaoui , Younes Bahammou ,
Mounir Kouhila, Ali Idlimam , Abdelkader Lamharrar*
Team of Solar Energy and Aromatic and Medicinal Plants EESPAM, ENS, Marrakech - Laboratory of Processes for Energy & Environment ProcEDE, Cadi Ayyad
University Marrakech, Morocco

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In regards to the highly perishable character of most food products and plants, their conservation during
Received 29 September 2019 large transportation distances and storage is a sensitive issue. The drying process is a method used to
Received in revised form increase the shelf life of the products. It is a fundamental operation in the industry that requires energy
28 August 2020
and time. This process permits to avoid the deterioration of product quality through the microorganisms
Accepted 1 September 2020
Available online 2 September 2020
and the enzymatic reactions. The aim of this work is to study the carob pulp (Ceratonia Siliqua L.) solar
drying using a convective solar dryer. Besides, to understand the drying kinetics and to obtain the
characteristic drying curve under different temperatures (50, 60, 70, 80
C) and different drying air
Keywords:
Activation energy
velocities. As results, the increase of drying temperature leads to a drying time decrease. In addition, the
Carob pulp variation of the diffusivity coefficient is found to be ranged between 1.56 109 and 6.98 109, moreover, it
Diffusivity coefficient is influenced by the increase of the drying temperature. As well an energy-exergy analysis is conducted
Energy analysis to evaluate the performance of the studied solar dryer. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the
Exergy analysis convective dryer are varied in a range of 4.23e7.25% and 30.12e80.5%, respectively.
Solar drying © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Historically, the drying process is considered as one of the first

Ceratonia siliqua tree is a part of the Leguminoseae family. It is a
xerophyte and a common tree in Mediterranean countries for
centuries [1,2]. Carob has been cultivated for human and animal
nutrition. The fact that all of the components of this tree are widely
used makes it very interesting for agronomy industry. This species
is more requested by the food industry for its pharmaceutical and
dietetic benefits through its phenolic content which gives it
different roles such as antioxidant, digestion facility, and low rate of
cholesterol [3,4]. As it is illustrated in recent studies, the pods of
carob have an important antioxidant activity, besides they are a
source of carob gum because of the presence of a sugar called
galactomannan which is responsible for the pulp thickening
properties [5]. The pulp of the pods has a chocolate taste and it can
be used as a substitute for cocoa, with lower calorie intake. It
consists of 40% sugar 35% starch, 7% protein, and a lesser extent of
tannins and mineral salts such as calcium and magnesium.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lamharrar@uca.ma (A. Lamharrar).
methods to preserve and conserve the foodstuff. The drying oper-
ation aims to reduce the water content within the products which
is responsible for the food spoilage [6]. However, there is a strong
relation between the shelf life of biological products and their
moisture content. As it is well known in the literature, the product’s
inner moisture is an essential element to activate the biochemical,
microbiological, biophysical, and enzymatic transformations [7].
Consequently, the necessity to reduce the hydration degree of the
product to an adequate level to guarantee the biological stabiliza-
tion. Therefore, to spread the shelf life of the foodstuffs as long as
possible it is recommended to minimize their water content [8,9].
In this context, the solar drying of foods is manifested as a prom-
ising solution using solar energy. This type of energy represents an
unlimited, abundant, clean source and efficient alternative to con-
ventional systems with a very low environmental impact [10,11].
However, direct sun drying presents several setbacks such as the
strong dependence on the meteorological circumstances (solar
irradiation, wind velocity, etc.). In addition, the quality is eventually
affected by air contamination, microorganisms, insects, and bird
attacks, as a result of the extended drying time. Therefore, the
forced indirect solar drying is proved to be more efficient in order to

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2020.09.011
0960-1481/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
496 Z. Tagnamas et al. / Renewable Energy 163 (2021) 495e503

overcome the problems posed by the direct sun drying. According data of this product are investigated to obtain the characteristic
to several investigations published in the literature, solar drying is drying curve. Additionally, this study was coupled with an energy
proved to be a consistent and efficient technique for the preser- analysis by evaluating the total energy consumption used to dry the
vation of food products in the drying industry such as cocoa [12], carob pulp in 50, 60, 70, and 80
C temperatures. In order to eval-
daylily flowers [13], apricot [14] and white truffle [15]. Further- uate the performance of the solar dryer, an analysis is conducted to
more, the use of forced dryers can generate an economic gain by study the exergy balance of the carob drying.
lowering energy fees [16].
During the convective solar drying, a synchronized heat and
2. Material and methods
mass transmissions are manifested while the water within the
product is transported through the diffusion to the interface air-
2.1. Material and experimental solar dryer setup
product under a pressure gradient. To characterize these ex-
changes of mass and energy between the drying air and the
The product used in this study is the carob pulp of the type
product, a mathematical modeling of the drying process is neces-
Ceratonia Siliqua, which is bought from a local market in Marrakesh
sary. Therefore, the global correlation of drying is given under a
(Fig. 1). The product is subjected to a solar drying treatment at four
unique curve called the characteristic drying curve (CDC) [2,17]. The
temperatures (50, 60,70, and 80
C). For each drying experiment, a
characteristic drying curve is important to understand the drying
mass of 20 ± 0.001 g of the fresh carob is used and uniformly
kinetics, and to fit the experimental curve. From a literature review,
dispersed inside the drying chamber.
many authors studied the characteristic drying curve of different
The used device is an indirect convective dryer using both
types of products [2,15,18].
electric power and solar energy (Fig. 2). This dryer is composed of
In this paper, the performance of the used solar dryer is esti-
an air solar collector, a fan to circulate the air inside the dryer, and a
mated through an energy and exergy analysis in the objective to
drying chamber coupled with an electric resistance as an auxiliary
improve its efficiency. Energy analysis plays a vital role in opti-
heater. The details of the dryer are described by Tagnamas et al. [2].
mizing and improving the drying systems. However, this analysis is
The hot air coming from the collector enters below the drying
not sufficient to evaluate the performance of an energy system and
chamber and penetrates the trays to exchange heat and vapor
for that reason an exergy analysis is necessary. Thermodynamically,
water with the product. The electric resistance is necessary to
the exergy is the maximum obtainable work from a system as it
control the drying air temperature. To measure the mass loss dur-
completes the thermodynamic equilibrium through a reversible
ing the drying of samples, a digital weighing device (±0.001 g) was
process. The exergy analysis is very useful in terms of designing and
used outside the dryer. The measurements are taken every 10 min,
optimizing the thermal systems while considering the quantity of
by removing the product from the drying chamber for̴10 s, until the
energy and using the laws of thermodynamics. The energy effi-
variation of mass is inferior to 0.001 g. To calculate the moisture
ciency of dryers can be developed by choosing the best drying
content of the dried samples, they are exposed to a dehydration
conditions, as well as taking corrective actions towards identifying
oven at 105
C for 24 h. The relative humidity and temperature are
the reasons for inefficiency. The energy analysis of a drying system
measured using capacitance sensors and thermocouples (Table 1).
is conducted to identify the wasting of energy. The exhaust is
The solar dryer uses hot air with two velocities of 0.09 and 0.18 m/s,
considered as one of the main energy losses in the drying cavity.
Table 2 shows the aerothermal conditions used in the drying
This potential energy can be recovered by the recirculation of the
experiments.
air in the drying chamber. The energy loss in the exhaust could be
quantified by the energy analysis. However, multiple studies have
(1) Solar air heater, (2) circulation fan, (3) fan, (4) air flow di-
been conducted on the energy analysis of the solar drying process
rection, (5) control unit, (6) electrical heating system, (7)
of several agricultural products. Akbulut and Durmus [19] have
product to dry, (8) trays, (9) drying air exit, (10) drying
performed a thin layer drying of mulberry using an indirect forced
cabinet
solar dryer composed of a solar heater, fan, and a drying chamber.
The researchers remark that the exergy losses decrease, and the
The experiments are conducted to study the influence of the
energy efficiency increases when the mass air flow rate increases.
drying temperature on the drying kinetics, as well as the dryer
Midilli et al. [20] have studied the energy and exergy analyses of the
energy consumption. The experiments lead also to establish the
solar drying of unshelled and shelled pistachios using a forced in-
characteristic drying curve (CDC).
direct solar dryer composed mainly from a solar air heater and a
drying chamber. Investigators report that the required energy to
dry unshelled pistachio is more important than the required energy 2.2. Product moisture content during drying
for shelled one. They also report that energy efficiency increased
during the progression of the drying process through time. Addi- Mathematically, to analyze the drying curves, the initial mois-
tionally, the exergetic efficiency of shelled pistachio is more ture content (M0) and the equilibrium moisture content (Me) are
important than the unshelled one. Celma and Cuadros [21] have
performed exergy and energy analyses on the olive mill wastewa-
ter’s drying, using an indirect solar convective dryer. The dryer used
is composed of an air heater and a drying chamber which is crossed
by the air flow. From the results, on one hand, the energy efficiency
of the dryer decreased in low air temperatures. In another hand, the
exergy efficiency is ranged from 53.24 to 100% on the first day and
34.4e100% in the second one; thus, exergy losses decreased in the
second drying day.
Given the literature survey, there is no study conducted on the
energy-exergy analysis of the carob pulp solar drying in the liter-
ature. As a result, a convective drying method is used in this study
to preserve the carob pulp. Come to that, the drying experimental Fig. 1. (Left) Fresh carob pulp, (Right) Dried carob pulp.
 Z. Tagnamas et al. / Renewable Energy 163 (2021) 495e503 497

Fig. 2. Lift) Schematic diagram of the solar dryer, Right) Photograph of the indirect solar.

generally used by different authors [2,22,23] to get the moisture


ratio MR as well as the initial drying rate (-dMR/dt). The moisture E
Deff ¼ D0 exp  (5)
ratio is calculated as follows [24]: RT


MðtÞ  Me Where, E is the activation energy, D0 is defined as the Arrhenius
MR t ¼ (1) pre-exponential factor (m2/s), R is known as the universal gas
M0  Me
constant (J/mol K) and T is the absolute air temperature.
Where MR is defined as the moisture ratio.
2.4. Energy consumption during solar drying

2.3. Effective diffusivities and activation energy In the convective solar dryer, the amount of consumed energy
(Etotal) at different drying experiments is obtained by the addition
In order to evaluate the diffusion of moisture during the drying of the thermal energy (Et), and the mechanical energy (Emec) [26].
process Fick’s law is used to determine the diffusivity coefficients. The thermal energy is estimated by the following equation:
The equation of Fick’s law is expressed as followed [25]:
Et ¼ A:y:ra :Ca :DT:Dt (6)
!  2

2n þ 1 p2 Deff t
8 X
∞
1 Where, A is the sectional area of the container in which the sample
MR t ¼ exp  (2)
p2 n¼0 ð2n þ 1Þ2 4L2 is placed, n is the air velocity (m/s), ra is the air density (kg/m3), DT
is the temperature difference between air drying and ambient
The previous equation is expressed in a logarithmic form as temperature (
C), Ca is the specific heat of the air (kJ/kg
C) and Dt is
shown below: the total time for drying of each sample (h).



2  Air density ra is calculated as [27]:
8 p Deff
ln MR ¼ ln 2  t (3) 101:325
p 4L2 ra ¼ (7)
0:287  Tabs
Where MR is the moisture ratio, while L is defined as the half-
thickness of the samples and Deff is the effective diffusion Where Tabs is the drying air temperature (K).
coefficient. The specific heat capacity of the inlet air is calculated using this
The effective diffusion coefficient is given by ln (MR) as a formula [28]:
function of time. The slope is defined as:
3:83719  Tabs 9:45378  T2abs
Ca ¼ 1:04841  þ
p2 Deff 104 107
Slope ¼ (4)
4L2 5:49031  Tabs 7:92981  T4abs
3
 þ (8)
From the Arrhenius equation, the value of activation energy was 1010 1014
extracted [15]. The mechanical energy consumed by the solar dryer is divided

Table 1
Used sensors in the drying experiments of carob pulp.

Sensor Measurement range Characteristics

Digital weighing device 0e5000 g Digital weighing device

Capacity-Accuracy: ±0.1 g
RS232 Interface
Glass wind-shield
hygrometer 0e98% ABS body RH probe with built-in microchip,



C/ F temperature readout 250-h battery life with a battery level indicator
Thermometer 0e120
C HI 935005
K-Thermocouple probe



C/ F temperature readout 200-h battery life with a battery level indicator
498 Z. Tagnamas et al. / Renewable Energy 163 (2021) 495e503

Table 2
Aerothermal conditions of drying experiments of carob pulp. hfg ¼ 2:503106  2:386  103
 
Drying air Air velocity Ambient air Relative Humidity ðTabs  273:16Þ 273:16  Tabs K < 338:72
temperature (
C) (m s1) temperature Tair (
C) Hair (%)

50 0.18 27 51
60 0.18 25 56 (14)
70 0.18 32 47
80 0.18 30 54
 0:5  
50 0.09 22 26 2
60 0.09 18 24.5
hfg ¼ 7:33  1012  1:60  107  Tabs 338:72 < Tabs K
70 0.09 28 37
 533:16
80 0.09 31 39.5
(15)

into two parts. The first one is the amount of energy consumed by
the electric fan, and the second one is dedicated to the electric
2.7. Exergy analysis of the drying chamber
resistance. The amount of mechanical energy is determined as [29]:

The exergy losses associated with the drying process are the
Emec ¼ DP:mair :Dt þ U:I:Dt (9)
|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} |fflfflffl{zfflfflffl} exergy loss through the air leaving the dryer; the losses of exergy
f an Resistance are due to the heat rejection through the dryer walls and the
product. The exergy analysis adopted in this study was carried out
Where DP is the pressure difference (mbar), mair is the air mass
based on the flow exergy equation for the steady flow. The exergy
(kg), U is the voltage (V) and I is the current (A) consumed by the
loss in the dried product is negligible.
resistance.
To facilitate the study these assumptions were adopted in the
exergy analysis [31]:

 The flow inside the dryer is supposed to be steady;

2.5. Specific energy consumption in the drying process  The change in the moisture content of the drying air in the dryer
outlet is neglected;
The specific energy consumption (kJ/kg) is defined as the  The influence of kinetic and potential energies is neglected.
required energy (kJ) to remove 1 kg water from the product and is
calculated as [30]: In this study, the references for the pressure and temperature of
the air are 25
C and 101,325 Pa.
Etotal By applying the second law of thermodynamics an exergy bal-
SEC ¼ (10)
mw ance of the carob drying process can be developed [32e35]. The
exergy balance of the drying process of carob pulp is conducted by
Where mw is the amount of the removed moisture (kg).
the following equation [36]:
mw is calculated using this equation [29]:
X X X
  Exin  Exout ¼ Exdes (16)
Yi Xi  Xf
mw ¼ (11) The loss of exergy in the drying cabinet of the used dryer can be
100  Xf estimated using the following equation [36]:

Where Yi is the initial weight of the sample (kg). Xi is the initial Exloss ¼ Exin  Exout (17)
water content. Xf is the final water content.
Where, Exin is the exergy inflow of the drying chamber (J/s), Exout is
the exergy outflow (J/s), Exdes is the destroyed exergy during the
drying process (J/s) and Exloss is the lost exergy (J/s).
2.6. Energy efficiency The expressions of exergy inflow and outflow are given by the
following equations [36]:
The energy efficiency is expressed as the fraction of the water 

evaporation energy of the total consumed energy. Energy efficiency T
_ air ðTin  T0 Þ  T0 ln in
Exin ¼ mC
was calculated using this equation [29]: T0 (18)

Qw
he ¼ (12) 

Etotal T
_ air ðTout  T0 Þ  T0 ln out
Exout ¼ mC (19)
T0
Where Qw is the water evaporation energy (kWh).
In order to evaluate the evaporation energy, for materials with  
Where mis the mass air flow (kg/s). m is determined by the
considerable water content, equation (13) is used [29]. following equation:

Q w ¼ hfg mw (13) m_ ¼ r  vair  Sair (20)

Where hfg is the latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kg). Where, ris the air density (kg/m3), vair is the velocity of drying air
The latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kg) is calculated as a function (m/s) and Sair is the area of the air inlet to the drying chamber (m2).
of absolute temperature (Tabs) of the drying air as follows [28]: To calculate the exergy transfer rate from the evaporation of the
 Z. Tagnamas et al. / Renewable Energy 163 (2021) 495e503 499

dried product, the following equation is used [36].

 
T
Exevap ¼ 1  0 Q_ evap (21)
Tin
To evaluate the exergy efficiency of the drying process and the
chamber, the following equations could be used [36].
For the drying chamber:

Exevap
hdry;ch ¼ (22)
Exin
For the drying process:

Exout
hdry;ch ¼ (23)
Exin

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 3. Moisture content variation versus drying time.
3.1. Drying kinetics

The solar drying method is carried out to dry the carob pulp,
Table 3 shows the experimental conditions used in the drying ex-
periments. Under the aerothermal conditions of the experiments,
the necessary drying time for carob pulp was varied from 160 to
330 min for air drying temperature varying between 50 and 80
C,
and air velocity of 0.18 and 0.09 m/s. The obtained results confirm
that the drying time could decrease with a rate of 53% when the air
temperature increases from 50 to 80
C at an air velocity of 0.18 m/s.
Fig. 1 shows the influence of solar drying on the product. As the
figure reveals, there is an impact on the color of the samples
without a significant change in the product structure.
Fig. 3 demonstrates the variation of the water content of carob
pulp in the function of time and the drying kinetics in different
conditions of the experiments. To study the solar drying of carob
pulp eight experiments were performed. Fig. 3 describes as well the
moisture loss progression during the drying at four temperatures
50, 60, 70, and 80
C and under an air velocity of 0.18 and 0.09 m/s.
The initial moisture content varied from 1.55 to 1.60 (% d.b). At the
end of the drying process, the moisture content varied from 0.08 to
0.14 (% d.b) as mentioned in Fig. 3.
The obtained curves show that the moisture content decreases
during the time. It could be deduced from the figure that the drying
air temperature impacts the required time for drying. Besides, Fig. 3
manifests the absence of phases 0 and 1 (initial period and constant
rate period) and the only existence of phase 2 (falling rate period).
During this phase, the drying process is controlled by water diffu-
sion; this phenomenon is a complex mechanism that involves va-
por and liquid states. In addition, water diffusion is governed by
temperature and pressure gradients. The absence of phases 0 and 1
may be due to the small difference between the wet air tempera-
ture and the initial one of the product. The drying air parameters
have a significant effect on the drying process of carob pulp. As
indicated in Fig. 3, an increase in the air temperature implies a
decrease in moisture content. This result could be explained by the
rise of the thermal exchange coefficient between the product and
the air.
Fig. 4 represents the variation of the carob pulp’s drying rate in
the function of the moisture content. It is observed that the drying
rate decreases relatively to the decrease in drying air temperature.
These results show that the drying rate of carob pulp is influenced
by the used temperature. Similar results were reported for other
biological products under the solar convective drying [18,25]. For
all the drying experiments, the initial drying rates are high, due to
the high initial moisture content of carob pulp. The drying rate
values start to decrease with the removal of the water from the
product which is similar to the remarks reported in other drying
studies [2,18,25]. Different notes can be concluded from the pre-
vious results, it is observed that the drying air temperature is a
significant factor. Indeed, when the temperature increases, the
drying time decreases as well (Table 3). As a result, it is assured that
the drying rate increases with temperature. Furthermore, at 80
C,
the drying time increases with a rate of 5.8% when the air velocity
decreases from 0.18 to 0.09 m/s and a rate of 9% for 50
C. Therefore,

Table 3
Solar drying conditions of carob pulp.

Drying temperature (
C) Air velocity (m s1) Drying time (min)

50 0.18 300
60 0.18 240
70 0.18 190
80 0.18 160
50 0.09 330
60 0.09 250
70 0.09 210
80 0.09 170
Fig. 4. Drying rate variation as a function of moisture content.
500 Z. Tagnamas et al. / Renewable Energy 163 (2021) 495e503

Fig. 5. Characteristic drying curve (CDC) of carob pulp.

Fig. 6. ln (Deff) as a function of temperature inverse.

the variation of the air velocity has a minor influence on the drying
time. In fact, the drying temperature is the major factor to influence process are observed. To explain and describe the drying behavior
the drying time. These results could be explained by the rise of the of carob pulp, Fick’s second law is used.
convective coefficient transmission of mass and heat exchanges. Table 4 demonstrates the values of effective diffusivities for 50,
These exchanges occur between the product and the drying air due 60, 70, and 80
C, at used air velocities. From the indicated table it is
to the influence of the drying temperature. obvious that the moisture diffusion (Deff) increases in a range of
1.56 109 - 6.98 109 relatively when the drying temperature
3.2. Characteristic drying curve (CDC) increases.
The diffusivity values usually range between 108 and 1012
The characteristic drying curve is a useful tool that permits to [37]. The high temperatures of drying will eventually increase the
establish an empirical law of drying. Taking into consideration the heating energy, thus leading to increase the activity of water mol-
experimental results, this approach leads to a total understanding ecules which means higher moisture diffusivity.
of the drying process under various aerothermal conditions. Fig. 5 The activation energy is the equivalent amount of energy to
presents the CDC of carob pulp. In the graph there is a strong cor- overcome the barrier for the drying process to take place. Activa-
relation between the product moisture and the drying temperature tion energy can be deduced by the logarithmic presentation of the
which indicates the possibility to store the product for extended effective diffusivity in the function of temperature inverse as
periods. indicated in Fig. 6. Thus, it reveals the effect of temperature on the
Using a computer software “Origin 8”, a non-linear optimization diffusivity coefficients [38].
method of the drying experimental results leads to identify the The fitting demonstrates a linear equation of the form: ln
characteristic drying curve in the form of a multivariable equation. (Deff) ¼ 12.816e11,213 (1/T) with a correlation coefficient of 0.9864.
The average activation energy of carob pulp is found to be 93.18 kJ/
f ¼  1:94 þ 629102 T þ 1:5MR  4:31104 T2  0:8MR2 mol.
(24)
The model fits the characteristic drying curve with a correlation 3.4. Total energy consumption during the drying
coefficient of 0.9626 which confirms the precise of the fit.
Fig. 7 shows the total energy consumption in the solar convec-
3.3. Effective diffusivities and activation energy tion drying of carob pulp under different air temperatures.
It is observed from Fig. 7 that the drying total energy con-
According to the experimental drying curves of carob pulp, a sumption decreases when the air temperature increases. That im-
falling drying rate period as well as a liquid diffusion control of the plies that if the temperature increases, the drying time decreases
which leads to influence the total energy consumption. The
increasing energy demand of the dryer with the decreasing of the
Table 4
Values of effective diffusivity as a function of temperature.
temperature is due to the extended periods of drying in lower
temperatures. These results are identical to multiple studies results
Temperature Air velocity Diffusion coefficient Deff Correlation
reported of several food products drying such as pomegranate arils,
(
C) (m/s) (m2/s) coefficient (r)
Russian olive, and chamomile [26,39,40]. The total energy con-
50 0.09 1.56 109 0.9819 sumption increases slightly with the decrease of the drying air
60 0.09 2.45 109 0.9802
velocity, which reveals the significant impact of drying temperature
70 0.09 3.89 109 0.9445
80 0.09 4.76 109 0.9938 comparing to the air velocity on energy consumption.
50 0.18 3.73 109 0.9754 Fig. 7 illustrates also the specific energy consumption (SEC)
60 0.18 4.65 109 0.9851 values. For the tested conditions (temperatures 50, 60, 70, and 80
C
70 0.18 5.59 109 0.9912
and air velocities 0.09 and 0.18 m/s) the SEC values obtained in a
80 0.18 6.98 109 0.9832
range between 0.15 and 0.25 kWh/kg for carob pulp. An increase in
 Z. Tagnamas et al. / Renewable Energy 163 (2021) 495e503 501

Fig. 7. Energy consumption and specific energy consumption during convection solar
drying at different aerothermal conditions.

air temperature implies a decrease in specific energy consumption.

According to these results, the best conditions to dry the carob pulp,
Fig. 9. Exergy loss, exergy transfer rate from the evaporation and the exergy destroyed
using the proposed dryer, are 80
C and 0.18 m/s regarding the in the drying chamber.
lowest SEC (0.15 kWh/kg). The same results are found for thin layer
drying of chamomile, berberis fruit, pomegranate arils, and
peppermint leaves [26,28,39,41,42]. mass of the dried product, which contrasts with the high and hot
energy supplied by the solar dryer and limited amount of evapo-
rated energy. To improve the energy efficiency of the drying system
3.5. Energy efficiency
the dryer loading capacity must be increased.
Fig. 8 below displays the values of energy efficiency for multiple
drying conditions of carob pulp. As it is shown, the efficiency in- 3.6. Exergy analysis of the drying chamber
creases with the increase of temperature.
According to this figure, the minimum energy efficiency value According to Fig. 9, the exergy loss of drying chamber was varied
(4.23%) was found at 50
C while the maximum value (7.25%) was
from 0.32 to 1.21 kJ/s, the exergy transfer rate of evaporation in the
achieved at 80
C. drying chamber and the destroyed exergy were in the range of
The data analysis for the drying of carob pulp using a solar
0.03544e0.24 kJ/s and 0.04e0.22 kJ/s, respectively. It is observed
convective dryer shows high energy efficiency in comparison to the that any increase in the drying air temperature and velocity in-
thin drying air convection of peppermint leaves (3.5e5.3%) and
creases the exergy loss values, the same response was observed for
convective drying of chamomile (1.9e6.7%), furthermore, obtained the exergy transfer rate of evaporation, and destroyed exergy inside
values are compatible with results found by other drying studies
[26,41,43]. Increasing of energy efficiency is due to decreasing
drying time and energy demand when the air temperature in-
creases from 50 to 80
C. Low efficiency values show that the major
part of energy in the drying chamber is not utilized due to the low

Fig. 10. Exergy efficiency for the drying process and drying chamber at different drying
Fig. 8. Dryer energy efficiency at different drying air temperatures. air temperatures and air velocities.
502 Z. Tagnamas et al. / Renewable Energy 163 (2021) 495e503
Fig. 11. Shankey-Grassman diagram depicting the exergy flowing through drying chamber at air temperature of 80
C and air velocity of 0.18 m s1.
the drying chamber. Exergy loss does not vary greatly with the
drying conditions, and that is due to the low consumed exergy by
the dried product and the part destroyed in the drying chamber.
Exergy loss through drying chamber walls is one of the thermo-
dynamic inefficiencies of the drying process. Exergy loss is
increased at higher drying air temperatures due to the increase in
the global heat transfer coefficient. Whereas the destroyed exergy
was influenced by the air conditions, a significant gradient of in-
crease is observed between the two velocities used in the experi-
ment, which means that the exergy destroyed in the drying
chamber is strongly related to this parameter. The low amount of
exergy transfer rate of evaporation is explained by the lower
quantity of samples used in the experiments in regards to the high
values of the inflow exergy of the drying chamber. It is indicated
that the several forms of exergy have similar changes around the
drying air conditions; exergy increases with the increasing of dry-
ing air temperature and velocity.
3.7. Exergy efficiency
The Fig. 10 demonstrates the variation of the exergy efficiency of
the drying chamber and the drying process for different drying
conditions of carob pulp. The exergy efficiencies are varied in the
range of 21.35 and 53.26% for the drying process and the range of
30.12 and 80.5% for the drying chamber. It is noticed that at any
value of air temperature and air velocity, the exergy efficiency for
drying procedure and drying chamber increases with the increases
of drying air temperature and velocity. This is due to the fact that
the increase in the drying air temperature and velocity increases
the quantity of exergy inlet to the drying chamber, and then the
main portion of the inlet exergy is expelled by the outlet air without
any use for moisture evaporation. The exergy efficiency for the
drying process is less than the exergy efficiency for the drying
chamber in different drying conditions. This is due to the fact that
during the drying process, the drying exergy increases as well as
the moisture substance decreases with the progression of drying
experiments. In one hand, high values of the outflow exergy in the
drying chamber indicate the high exergy efficiency of the drying
chamber. In other hand, low values of destruction exergy indicate
that the exergy efficiency of the drying process is less than the
chamber efficiency. These results are in agreement with similar
studies of dried products [32,34,44].
Fig. 11 shows the Shankey-Grassman diagram for the best
exergetic experiment (maximum exergy efficiency 80%) based on
the exergy balance. The drying conditions of 80
C and 0.18 m/s are
the optimal conditions for the drying of carob pulp using solar
energy [31].
4. Conclusions
Carob pulp (Ceratonia siliqua) slices were dried efficiently in the
described solar dryer, and an energy-exergy analysis was con-
ducted. The solar convective drying was considered as a technique
of carob pulp valorization. In this study, the drying experiments
were conducted under various conditions of drying air. Therefore,
from the obtained results several conclusions are drawn from this
study:
 The drying curves have shown that phase 2 is the only phase
that existed from the beginning of each experiment to its end.
The drying temperature had a significant influence on the dry-
ing kinetics as well as the drying time. The drying air velocity
tended to affect the drying kinetics but less than the influence of
drying air temperature.
 The drying process of carob pulp was well described by the
characteristic drying curve (CDC) for the used drying technique.
After performing a statistical analysis an appropriate multivar-
iable model was found to describe the CDC of the carob slices.
 For the diffusivity coefficient (Deff), it was proven to be
increasing with the drying temperature equally and varied from
1.56 109 to 6.98 109. The Arrhenius relation allowed the
calculation of the activation energy that was found to be
93.18 kJ/mol.
 Energy analysis revealed that to dry 1 kg of carob pulp 0.15 to
0.25 kWh of energy was needed. The inlet air temperature
significantly affected the efficiency of the solar dryer. High
drying air temperature led to high efficiency values. The ener-
getic efficiency of the solar dryer varied between 4.23% and
7.25%.
 The exergy efficiencies during the carob pulp drying experi-
ments were varied in a range of 21.35e53.26% and 30.12e80.5%
for the drying chamber and for the drying process, respectively.
 The high exergy and low energy efficiencies of the drying
chamber demonstrated considerable energy loss. This exhaust is
due to the limited amount of evaporated product moisture and
significant unused energy.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Zakaria Tagnamas: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software,
Writing - original draft. Hamza Lamsyehe: Data curation. Haytem
Moussaoui: Visualization. Younes Bahammou: Writing - review &
editing. Ali Idlimam: Software, Validation, Supervision.
 Z. Tagnamas et al. / Renewable Energy 163 (2021) 495e503
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge the CNRST (Morocco) for
providing financial support of this work in the program Research
Excellence Scholarships.
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