Thermal model development and performance analysis of a solar photovoltaic supported greenhouse dryer Online publication date: Wed, 02-Nov-2016
by Ramen Kanti De; A. Ganguly
International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology (IJRET), Vol. 7, No. 4, 2016
Abstract: In this paper, a novel scheme of a standalone grid independent solar greenhouse dryer has been proposed. A thermal model for forced convection solar greenhouse drying of Peas has been developed. The model takes hourly values of climate data for the chosen location along with certain other data related to the product and the greenhouse as input and predicts the hourly values of product temperature, greenhouse air temperature, convective heat transfer coefficient and the amount of moisture evaporated from the product. The performance of the dryer has been analysed for a representative day in the month of December for the climatic condition of Kolkata, India (22.32°N, 88.20°E). To make the system grid independent, a photovoltaic-based power system with battery backup has been designed. The performance of the integrated power system has been analysed for all the seasons of a climatic cycle. Finally, an economic analysis has been included to calculate the payback period of the proposed dryer.
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