Performance of a large-scale greenhouse solar dryer integrated with phase change material thermal storage system for drying of chili

Large-scale greenhouse solar dryers have been used for drying various products and this type of dryer is usually equipped with LPG burner as auxiliary heater, which creates more operating cost. To overcome this problem, phase change material (PCM) thermal storage was proposed to substitute for the LPG burner. In this work, the performance of a large-scale greenhouse solar dryer integrated with a PCM as a latent heat storage for drying of chili was investigated. Experimental studies were conducted to compare the performance of this dryer with that of another large-scale greenhouse solar dryer without the PCM thermal storage and open sun drying. Chili with an initial moisture content of 74.7% (w.b.) was dried to a final moisture content of 10.0% (w.b.) in 2.5 days, 3.5 days, and 11 days using the solar dryer integrated with the PCM thermal storage, the solar dryer without the PCM thermal storage and the open sun drying, respectively. The performance of the solar dryer integrated with the PCM thermal storage was also evaluated using exergy analysis. The exergy efficiency of the drying room of the solar dryer integrated with the PCM thermal storage and the solar dryer without the PCM thermal storage for drying of chili was found to be 13.1% and 11.4%, respectively and the thermal storage helps to dry chili during adverse weather conditions. The results of exergy analysis implied that the exergy losses from the dryer with the PCM should be reduced.