Design and building of solar dryer equipment for tropical fruits
Keywords:
Renewable energy, solar energy, food dehydration, heat and mass transfer, mathematical modeling of dehydrationAbstract
The depletion of fossil resources and environmentalimplications associated with its use has led to interestin the use of renewable resources. Among these, solarenergy has great potential in the process of obtainingenergy and heat. Specifically, in the development offruit dehydration processes. This paper describes thedesign and construction of a solar dehydration equipmentinduced flow. The equipment obtained as a resultof this study allows for the development of thedehydration process in tropical fruits of different physicaland organoleptic characteristics. First, the studyfocused on the selection of the equipment deploymentpoint and selecting the constructive disposition.Subsequently, it was focused on the design, dimensioningand construction of the equipment. Finally,dehydration tests were performed; the results arecompared with the results of traditional dehydrationequipment and with data obtained from the use ofmathematical models used for simulating the process.The results provide evidence of differences of 20 %in processing times using solar energy compared toenergy derived from fossil fuel. In the same way, it isestablished that the modified Page model is the onethat best fits the data obtained from the dehydrationprocess developed in this study. Design innovationsdeveloped in this study allow obtaining dehydratedfruits evenly and reducing CO2.
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References
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