Sains Malaysiana 45(3)(2016): 489–497

Development of an Efficient Flat Plate Solar Air Heater for Drying and Water Heating Purposes

(Pembangunan Sebuah Pemanas Udara Suria Plat Rata yang Cekap bagi Tujuan Pengeringan dan Pemanasan Air)

 

M. HANIF1*, M.K. KHATTAK1, M. AMIN1, M. RAMZAN1, S. ZAKIR2, S. ULLAH2 & Z. KHAN2

 

1Department of Agricultural Mechanization, The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan

 

2Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Peshawar, Pakistan

 

Diserahkan: 15 Mei 2014/Diterima: 3 September 2015

 

ABSTRACT

A 1.7 m2 flat plate solar air heater was designed and developed in the Department of Agricultural Mechanization, The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. It was operated under an average solar irradiance of 0.9 kJ.m-2.h-1 in the month of September, 2013. It worked under an efficiency of 7.5 to 21%. The heat collected by the air heater was given to air flowing as a medium inside it. This hot air was given to a drying section and water heating tank for drying and water heating purposes. The drying section provided a temperature in the range of 40-50oC and humidity of 10-30% from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. The water heating tank provides hot water with a temperature of 35- 45oC from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Furthermore, the drying section was used to dry apples, onions and persimmons. All the products showed a consistent moisture loss from them with an optimum drying rate. The two term exponential model showed that all the three products dried have a good correlation with drying time with R2 values higher than 0.90. It was concluded that flat plate solar air heaters is the best technology for water heating and drying purposes and is a good alternative of conventional energy sources.

 

Keywords: Efficiency; drying; flat plate solar air heater; solar energy; water heating

 

ABSTRAK

Sebuah pemanas udara suria plat rata berukuran 1.7 m2 direka dan dibangunkan di Jabatan Pertanian Pemesinkan, Universiti Pertanian Peshawar, Pakistan dengan kerjasama Jabatan Sains Alam Sekitar, Universiti Peshawar, Pakistan. Ia telah beroperasi menggunakan purata sinaran suria sebanyak 0.9 kJ.m-2.jam-1 pada bulan September 2013. Ia menggunakan kecekapan 7.5 hingga 21%. Haba yang dikumpul oleh pemanas udara telah diberikan kepada udara yang mengalir sebagai medium di dalamnya. Udara panas ini telah diberikan kepada bahagian pengeringan dan tangki pemanas air untuk tujuan pengeringan dan pemanasan air. Bahagian pengeringan menyediakan suhu dalam lingkungan 40-50oC dan kelembapan 10-30% dari 10:00 pagi hingga 3:00 petang. Tangki pemanas air menyediakan air panas dengan suhu 35-45oC dari 10:00 pagi hingga 5:00 petang. Selain itu bahagian pengeringan juga digunakan untuk mengeringkan epal, bawang dan pisang kaki. Semua produk menunjukkan kehilangan lembapan yang konsisten dengan kadar pengeringan optimum. Model eksponen dua istilah menunjukkan bahawa tiga produk kering tersebut mempunyai kolerasi yang baik dengan masa pengeringan dengan nilai R2 lebih tinggi daripada 0.90. Kesimpulannya, pemanas udara suria plat rata adalah teknologi terbaik untuk tujuan pemanasan air dan pengeringan dan adalah alternatif yang baik sebagai sumber tenaga konvensional.

 

Kata kunci: Kecekapan; pemanas air; pemanas udara suria plat rata; pengeringan; tenaga solar

 

RUJUKAN

Ahmed, A.G. 2011. Design and construction of a solar drying system with a cylindrical section and it’s analysis of the performance of the thermal drying system. Afr. J. Agric. Res. 6: 343-351.

Altfeld, K., Leiner, W. & Fiebig, M. 1988. Second law optimization of flat-plate solar air heaters - part 2: Results of optimization and analysis of sensibility to variations of operating conditions. J. Solar Energy. 41(4): 309-317.

Ayensu, A. 1997. Dehydration of food crops using a solar drier with convective heat flow. J. Solar Energy. 59: 121-126.

Ehiem. J.C., Irtwange, S.V. & Obetta, S.E. 2009. Design and development of an industrial fruit and vegetable dryer. Res. J. Applied Sci. Eng. Tech. 1(2): 44-53.

Eisenmann, W., Vajen, K. & Ackermann, H. 2004. On the correlations between collector efficiency factor and material content of parallel flow flat plate solar collectors. J. Solar Energy 76: 381-387.

Ertekin, C., Kulcu, R. & Evrendilek, F. 2008. Techno-economic analysis of solar water heating systems in Turkey. J. Sensors. 8: 1252-1277.

Hanif, M., Rahman, M., Khan, M., Aamir, M., Ramzan, M., Amin, M. & Mari, I.A. 2013. Impact of drying temperatures and air mass flow rates on the drying performance of a parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) used for dehydration of apricots. Emirates J. Food and Agric. 3(6): 418-425.

Hanif, M., Ramzan, M. & Aamir, M. 2012a. Drying of grapes using a dish type solar air heater. J. Agric. Res. 50(3): 423- 432.

Hanif, M., Rahman, M., Aamir, M., Ramzan, M., Amin, M., Khan, M., Pervez, M. & Mari, I.A. 2012b. Recycling home scrap to develop an efficient dish type solar air heater for drying onions. American J. Agric. Sci. Eng. Tech. 1(3): 1-9.

Kadam, D.M., Nangare, D.D., Singh, R. & Kumar, S. 2008. Low-cost greenhouse technology for drying onion (Allium cepa L.). J. Food Process Eng. 34(1): 67-82.

Karim, A.M. & Hawlader, M.N.A. 2003. Development of solar air collectors for drying applications. J. Energy Conservation and Management 45: 329-344.

Kumar, D.G.P., Hebbar, H.U., Sukumar, D. & Ramesh, M.N. 2005. Infrared and hot-air drying of onions. J. Food Processing and Preservation 29: 132-150.

Mohanraj, M. & Chandrasekar, P. 2009. Performance of a forced convection solar drier integrated with gravel as heat storage material for chili drying. J. Eng. Sci. Tech. 4(3): 305-314.

Munir, T. 1985. Effect of design parameters on the performance of built-in-storage type solar water heater. Energy Conversion and Management 25: 277-281.

Ibrahim, D. 2012. Evaluation of some thin-layer drying models of persimmon slices (Diospyros kaki L.). J. Energy Conversion and Management 56(3): 199-205.

Santos, B.M., Quiroz, R. & Borges, T.P.F. 2005. A solar collector design procedure for crop drying. Braz. J. Che. Eng. 22: 104-132.

Storm, K. 2011. Product quality of solar dried carrots, tomatoes and onions. MS Thesis. Department of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science. Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Norway (Unpublished).

Sozen, A., Menlik, T. & Unvar, S. 2008. Determination of efficiency of flat plate solar collectors using neural network approach. J. Expert Systems with Applications 35: 1533-1539.

Wang, Z., Sun, J., Liao, X., Chen, F., Zhao, G., Wu, J. & Hu, X. 2007. Mathematical modeling on hot air drying of thin layer apple. J. Food Res. Int. 40(1): 39-46.

Yeh, H. & Lin, T. 1996. Efficiency improvement of flat-plate solar air heaters. Energy 21: 435-443.

 

 

*Pengarang untuk surat-menyurat; email: hanif_mechanization@aup.edu.pk

 

 

 

 

 

sebelumnya