Experimental study of flat plate solar collector with thermal energy storage using PCM for integration with solar dryer; standalone model and its operation

Solar dryer dries crops, vegetables, fruit, pulp, and fish varieties during the daytime. While the use of solar energy provides an economic benefit for micro, small, and medium farmers and business owners in the food processing industry, it is also essential to provide flexibility in utilization of the solar heat as per demand for easy adoption of these solar dryers. For this purpose, standalone solar collector storage (SCS) using phase change material for flexibility enhancement of existing solar dryers has been developed and presented in this paper. The study focuses on understanding the system’s operating performance to support a continuous drying process throughout the night using heated air. The SCS can store between 8–11 MJ of thermal energy during the day, which is substantial for a solar application. After the sunset system has ability to raise the ambient air temperature by 10–14°C while maintaining a 36 kg/h airflow rate, demonstrating practical viability for continuous drying operations. A maximum recovery of 4.6 MJ of the stored energy has been achieved for 11 h discharge. An operating strategy has also been developed to operate the SCS within the latent heat range of the phase change material to perform better during discharging.