Abstract
Poor grain drying facilities, along with the burden of drying cost, bound the farmers to market their produce soon after harvest. Thus, this research paper intends to study the influences of a novel cylindrical solar-assisted dryer on farmers’ income and its impact on the environment. The paper also presents the design and fabrication of a drying system for maize cobs using non-conventional solar energy. The performance of the solar-assisted drying system was also investigated for drying of yellow dent maize cobs. As a very energy-intensive post-harvest process, drying consumes a lot of electricity, which is usually provided by conventional energy. Here, solar dryers are the perfect solution in terms of efficiency, uniform drying of agricultural food products, less drying time, increased marketability of agricultural products, and reducing the load on farmer’s pocket for drying. With a high internal rate of return of 66 percent, the designed dryer proved to be technically and economically viable. Compared to open sun drying, the solar drying system produced better quality and drying time results. Compared to other models, the Midilli model fits the experimental maize drying data better, with a coefficient of determination of R2 = 0.89729. Energy analysis inferred savings of 1352.97 kWh electrical energy and 128.18 liters of diesel fuel plus a reduction of 1.22 t CO2 per annum can be achieved by using this dryer.
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Abbreviations
- T2 :
-
safe drying temperatures
- td :
-
expected drying time
- M:
-
dryer capacity per batch
- C p :
-
specific heat of product maize
- λ :
-
latent heat of vaporization
- It :
-
solar insolation, kw h/m2 day
- Hr 1 :
-
humidity ratio at the starting, kg/kg dry air
- Hr 2 :
-
humidity ratio at the end, kg/kg dry air
- g:
-
gravity, m/s2
- ρi :
-
density of inlet air
- Xt :
-
the amount of moisture at any given time t
- Xo :
-
initial moisture content
- ηed :
-
efficiency of electrically operated dryer
- Wb:
-
weight basis
- M/s:
-
messers
- SWG:
-
standard wire gauge
- H.R.:
-
high resistance
- PV:
-
photovoltaic
- D.C.:
-
direct current
- G.I.:
-
galvanized iron
- USD:
-
United States dollar
- M.C.:
-
moisture content
- ρe :
-
density of exit air
- Wb:
-
wet basis
- EY :
-
carbon emissions, t/year
- K, a, b, n:
-
drying constants
- ηdd :
-
efficiency of diesel-operated dryer
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The authors are highly obliged to the Dean, College of Technology and Engineering, MPUAT, Udaipur, for providing the environment and facilities required for carrying out the research work.
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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. KS, SK, NLP: material preparation, data collection, and critical review; MRP: energy-related calculations and statistical analysis. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Sharma, K., Kothari, S., Panwar, N.L. et al. Influences of a novel cylindrical solar dryer on farmer’s income and its impact on environment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 78887–78900 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21344-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21344-1