INVESTIGADORES
DURAN Gonzalo Jose
artículos
Título:
Semi Industrial Drying of Vegetables in Quebrada de Humahuca Using An Array Of Large Solar Air Collector
Autor/es:
M. CONDORÍ; G. DURÁN; R. ECHAZÚ; F. ALTOBELLI
Revista:
Energy for Sustainable Development
Editorial:
Elsevier - Pergamon
Referencias:
Año: 2017 vol. 37 p. 1 - 9
ISSN:
0973-0826
Resumen:
The design, structure, and evaluation of an indirect solar tunnel dryer of the air forced convection type are presented. The solar dryer was built and tested in Huacalera, Quebrada de Humahuaca, operated by a cooperative of small agricultural producers. The dryer consisted in a tunnel chamber of 450 kg load capacity and a bank of 10 solar collectors of 9.75 m long each. The collectors allowed temperatures in the drying chamber above 50 °C for 6 hours, requiring mixing with ambient air to produce the correct temperature for drying vegetables. During without load tests, with minimum air flow, 0.06 kg/s, a maximum rank of outlet temperatures of 80-90 °C and temperature differences of 50-60 °C were obtained. The dryer was operated with different vegetables, obtaining good quality products in approximately one and a half day of sun. The optimum point of the collector behavior was determined with 0.4 kg/s of air flow, and lower than 0.23 kg/s is needed to work near to the 50 °C of outlet temperature. It was also performed a financial evaluation of the dryer, eflecting that the investment return rate of the device was around one year. In the Huacalera area, due to the gusts of winds and the day-night thermal amplitude, solar drying practice to semi-industrial scale was feasible with this kind of technology