Solar Energy 162 (2018) 364–371

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Solar Energy
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T
Tomato slices drying in a liquid desiccant-assisted solar dryer coupled with a
photovoltaic-thermal regeneration system
Mahdiyeh Dorouzia, Hamid Mortezapoura, , Hamid-Reza Akhavanb,
⁎

Ahmad Ghazanfari Moghaddama

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
b
Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A liquid desiccant-assisted solar dryer was developed for tomato slices drying. In this dryer a photovoltaic-
Solar fraction thermal solar collector was used to supply the required electrical energy and regenerate the desiccant.
Energy consumption Experimental analysis of the dryer indicated that electrical energy needed for tomato drying was ranged from
Tomato slice 0.65 to 1.4 kW h. The maximum specific moisture extraction rate was around 0.275 kg/kW h. It was also re-
Surface color
vealed that both solar heat fraction and ratio of solar electricity to consumed electricity increased with de-
creasing the drying temperature. The designed dryer was able to supply the required electricity independent of
grid with drying at the temperature of 60–65 °C and regeneration’s pump activation relative humidity (RH) of
28%. Color analysis of the dried tomato indicated that the increase in the temperature of the drying air increased
the lightness (L∗), and yellowness (b∗) values, but the increase in the RH decreased the values of lightness and
redness (a∗). In addition, the hue angle values of dried tomatoes increased with increase of the activation RH and
drying temperature, producing dry slices with slightly light red color. Based on the fair value of solar electricity
generation and good color qualities of the final products, the temperature of 60 °C and activation RH of 23% was
recommended for tomato slices drying in this dryer.

1. Introduction a thermo-hydraulic performance of 2.09.

In hot air dryers, a large percentage of thermal energy is wasted via
Drying is the most common preservation technique used to extend the exhaust air. Therefore, recycling the exhaust air can improve energy
the shelf-life of fresh vegetables and fruits as well as to facilitate their efficiency of the system. In this regard, a number of researchers have
transportation and storage (Serhat Turgut et al., in press). Although applied different methods of heat recovery to the conventional hot air
water removal using the different drying methods inhibits microbial dryers. Sarsavadia (2007) achieved an energy saving of 70.7% by
growth and enzymatic activity and reduces chemical changes in the partially recycling of the exhaust air in a solar-assisted forced-convec-
dried products, but it is the most energy consuming process in food tion dryer. Also, Julklang and Golman (2015) presented a spray dryer
industry (Horuz et al., 2017). In this way, different designs of solar air with a waste heat recovery system through which the exhaust air was
collectors have been developed to improve the useful thermal energy supplied to an air-to-air heat exchanger to preheat the drying air. Si-
gain from the solar radiations. Chamoli and Thakur (2014) and Chamoli milar heat recovery system was used for convective-infrared drying of
(2015) have investigated V-down perforated baffles on the absorber kiwifruit by Özdemir et al. (2017).
plate of the solar air collectors. Bhowmik and Amin (2017) tried to In dryers with the air recycling system, the hot air, after passing
improve thermal efficiency of the flat plate solar collectors using re- over the products, is re-circulated to the dryer to be heated again for
flectors. Gawande et al. (2016) analyzed a solar air collector equipped contribution in drying process. The major drawback of this type of the
with reverse L-shaped ribs and achieved a maximum Nusselt number dryers is the gradual decrease in the moisture absorption potential of
enhancement of 282% over the smooth collector duct. Sawhney et al. the circulating air due to increase in its RH. To overcome this problem,
(2017) experimentally investigated the performance characteristics of a desiccant beds (Chramsa-ard et al., 2013; De Antonellis et al., 2012;
solar collector with delta winglets. The study reported a maximum Misha et al., 2015) and heat-pumps (Aktaş et al., 2017, 2016; Ceylan
Nusselt number enhancement of 223% over the flat plate collector and and Gürel, 2016; Chapchaimoh et al., 2016) are commonly used to

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (H. Mortezapour).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2018.01.025

0038-092X/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Received 30 September 2017; Received in revised form 10 December 2017; Accepted 9 January 2018
M. Dorouzi et al. Solar Energy 162 (2018) 364–371

Nomenclature hco outlet enthalpy of solar collector (J/kg)

L∗ lightness
a∗ redness ṁ a mass flow rate of drying air (kg/s)
b∗ yellowness m wd mass of the removed moisture (kg)
Cpa specific heat of drying air (J/kg °C) PV photovoltaic
DR drying rate (kg/min) PV-T photovoltaic-thermal
dt time interval of measurements (min) Qc rate of useful thermal energy gain of solar collector (W)
Efan electrical energies consumed by blower (W h) t time of drying (min)
Eheater electrical energy consumed by auxiliary heater (W h) RH relative humidity
Epump electrical energies consumed by the pump (W h) W product weight (kg)
Epv electrical energy generated by PV module (W h) SECE solar electricity to consumed electricity
Eth thermal energy provided by solar collector (W h) SF solar fraction
H° hue angle SHF solar heat fraction
hci inlet enthalpy of solar collector (J/kg) SMER specific moisture extraction rate (kg/W h)

remove the extra moisture from the drying air. desiccant bed. Furthermore, an electrical heater with a nominal power
However, the desiccant materials have a limited water absorption of 1000 W was installed inside the drying chamber, before the product
capacity and their absorbing ability decreases with the increase in their tray, to serve as the auxiliary heater.
moisture content. So, the desiccant regeneration, which is usually a The desiccant bed was a galvanized iron chamber with the dimen-
time and energy-consuming process, is considered. Several researchers sions of 0.2 × 0.3 × 0.5 m. The mist exhaust air of the drying chamber
have integrated rotary desiccant wheels with solar dryers for con- passes over the desiccant bed where a part of its humidity was absorbed
tinuous and energy efficient drying during the daily time. Kabeel and by the absorbent material. In this study calcium chloride solution
Abdelgaied (2016) have reported that drying time and quality of final (concentration of 30% by mass) was used as the liquid desiccant. The
products improved when using a rotary desiccant wheel with the solar desiccant regeneration process, when was needed, carried out by the
dryer. The results also showed that the rotary desiccant increased the PV-T solar collector which was a free-flow type, allowing the liquid to
useful thermal energy gain of the solar dryer by 153%. The results of a uniformly flow over the PV panel surface. The PV panel, a 110 Wp
study revealed that drying time decreased by 25% when using a rotary mono-crystalline PV module (As 110, Arya solar Co., Iran), was selected
desiccant wheel with a hot air dryer. While, total energy consumption to provide at least half of the total electricity required for the drying
of the combined system was 40–80% higher than that without desiccant process at the temperature of 65 °C. A 12V-DC pump with a nominal
wheel (Madhiyanon et al., 2007). power of 12 W was used to deliver the diluted absorbent solution to a
Compared with solid desiccants, liquid desiccants can be re- distribution pipe, which was installed on the top of the PV panel. The
generated at lower temperatures and have higher moisture removal distribution pipe feeds the liquid uniformly on the panel surface to
capacities (Misha et al., 2012). For this reason, more methods, such as freely flows downwards and be regenerated by absorbing the accumu-
the low temperature solar collectors and unused thermal energies lated heat of the panel. The concentrated solution, afterwards, was
generated by the industrial processes, are applicable to regenerate the conveyed to the desiccant chamber through the return pipe. When the
liquid desiccants. Furthermore, instead of Chlorofluorocarbons and RH of the drying air raised over the adjusted set point, a RH control unit
Hydro-chlorofluorocarbons, in the vapor compression cooling systems activated the regeneration pump to re-concentrate the diluted absor-
of the heat pump dryers, the liquid desiccants are not harmful to the bent solution. This enhanced the moisture absorption potential of the
environment (Shukla and Modi, 2017). The survey of the literature desiccant bed and led to a drop in RH of the drying air below the set
revealed that the use of desiccant material in the dryers needs extra point. A schematic of the process occurred in the designed dryer on the
equipment and heating sources to regenerate the desiccant during the psychrometric chart was illustrated in Fig. 2. The process includes three
drying process. This means that a fraction of useful generated thermal stages: stage 1 (line 1–2), through which temperature of the drying air
energy, that could be used to enhance water removal rate, should be increases by moving along the solar collector and over the auxiliary
spent for desiccant regeneration. This study presents a new liquid de- heater. Absolute humidity of the air remains constant in this stage.
siccant-assisted solar dryer for tomato slices drying. In order to con-
tinuous drying and simultaneous regeneration of the desiccant, a PV-T
solar collector was designed through which the liquid desiccant could 5
absorb the adverse heat accumulated on the PV panel, passing over it. 3
The literature review indicates that there is a lack of information about
the integration of PV-T technology, as the regeneration system, with a
similar compound solar dryer. 1 8
6
2. Material and methods 2

2.1. Experimental setup

A prototype of the designed liquid desiccant-assisted solar dryer is

depicted in Fig. 1. The dryer was comprised of an indirect solar dryer, a 4
liquid desiccant bed and a PV-T desiccant regeneration system. A per-
7
forated (with a porosity of 3%) cross-finned solar absorber with the
surface area of 1.1 m2 was used in the solar collector. More details of
the solar collector and drying chamber have been discussed by Fig. 1. A photograph of the liquid desiccant-assisted solar dryer: 1- solar collector, 2- air
Ziaforoughi and Esfahani (2016). A 12V-DC-powered blower was used entrance to the collector, 3- drying chamber, 4- liquid desiccant bed, 5- connecting tube,
6- PV panel, 7- regeneration system’s pump, 8- distribution pipe.
to circulate the drying air through the dryer’s components and the

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Fig. 3. Photographs of the tomato slices before (a) and after (b) drying.

measured by means of a solar pyranometer (TES1333, TES co., Taiwan).

A digital anemometer (BE816A, BESTONE co., China) was used to de-
termine the drying air flow rate. A relative humidity controller (SUN25-
H, SUNWARD co., Iran) was used to measure and control RH of the
drying air. This device had a RH sensor which was mounted inside the
drying chamber, before the product tray, and an on/off controller
whose duty was to remain the RH below the set point by activating the
regeneration system’s pump. Six temperature sensors (SMT 160) were
Fig. 2. Schematic of the drying process on the psychrometric chart.
installed in the different components of the dryer as well as backside
surface of the PV panel to measure the required temperatures. The
Stage 2 (line 2–3) demonstrates the moisture removal from the product sensors were connected to a computer using a temperature transmitter
surface in the drying chamber. Humidity of the air increases at an ap- (Tika 1323, Tika Eng., Co., Iran). The transmitter also had 8 output
proximately constant enthalpy, neglecting the heat losses to the am- relays one of which was used to control the auxiliary heater for
bient. Stage 3 (line 3–1) takes place inside the desiccant bed where the reaching to the desirable drying air temperature. A wattmeter trans-
liquid desiccant absorbs a part of humidity of the air. This stage is an mitter (Tika 1510, Tika eng., Co., Iran) was employed to determine the
exothermic reaction through which the sensible heat generated due to electricity consumption during the tests. In order to measure the elec-
the latent heat of condensation increases the desiccant and the air trical performance parameters of the PV panel, including open circuit
temperatures. After that, the approximately warm and dehumidified air voltage, short cut current, maximum voltage, current and power as well
enters to the solar collector again and the cycle repeats. as the fill factor, a solar PV analyzer (Prova 200, TES co., Taiwan) was
used. A schematic view of the designed dryer and the locations of the
2.2. Experimental procedure different measurement instruments were indicated in Fig. 4.

The evaluation tests were carried out in Biosystems Engineering 2.4. Parameters calculation
Department at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran on April
2016. For this purpose, Fresh tomatoes (from the same cultivar at The investigated parameters in this study were: drying rate, solar
commercial maturity) were purchased from a local farm. Tomatoes fraction, electrical energy consumption and specific moisture extraction
with uniform size, shape and color and without any signs of physical rate. Drying rate (DR) during the moisture removal process was defined
damage, were selected, washed in chlorinated water (50 mg Cl2/kg as (Ali et al., 2016):
H2O), drained and stored in a refrigerator (temperature of 4 ± 1 °C). Wt + dt −Wt
DR =
Average moisture content was estimated to be 94.2 ± 0.6% wet basis. dt (1)
The 500 g sliced tomatoes with mean thickness of 5 mm were dried
Electrical energy consumption included energy needed for the
to final moisture content of 10 ± 0.8% wet basis on the product tray
auxiliary heater, the blower and the regeneration system's pump. This
which was placed inside the drying chamber. At least two hours before
parameter was directly measured by the wattmeter transmitters (refer
starting the test, the samples were put at the outdoor conditions to
to instrumentation and control system section).
reach the surrounding temperature. The dryer assembly was mounted
Solar fraction (SF) represents the share of energy (electricity and
in a south facing orientation and the tests were started at 9 am and
heat) provided by the sun in total energy required for the process. It was
continued until 3 pm. Before putting the tomato slices in the dryer, the
given by the following equation (Mortezapour et al., 2012).
set up was run for one hour to reach operating condition. The tests were
conducted at three levels of the drying air temperature (60, 65 and Es
SF = × 100
70 °C), and three levels of the activation RH of the regeneration sys- ET (2)
tem’s pump (18, 23 and 28%), which were selected based on literature
where Es and ET respectively stand for the energy generated by the solar
(Marfil et al., 2008; Purkayastha et al., 2013) and trials, respectively. A
collectors and the total energy consumption which is the summation of
photograph of the tomato slices, before and after drying, was showed in
the solar and the electrical energies; Es involves the electrical energy
Fig. 3.
generated by the PV panel, measured by the solar PV analyzer, and the
thermal energy provided by the dryer’s collector which was determined
2.3. Instrumentation and control system using the following equation (Li et al., 2010).
∫ Qc dt
The weight variations of the products during the drying process Eth =
60 (3)
were measured using two load cells (L6D, Zemic co., China), which
were installed inside the drying chamber where the product tray was where Qc, the rate of useful thermal energy gain of the solar collector,
mounted on them. Solar radiation intensity on the collector surface was can be expressed as follow (Condorí et al., 2017):

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M. Dorouzi et al. Solar Energy 162 (2018) 364–371

Fig. 4. A schematic diagram of the designed dryer: 1- solar collector, 2- auxiliary heater, 3- product tray, 4- desiccant bed, 5- blower, 6- distribution pipe, 7- PV-T regenerator, 8- pump, 9-
temperature sensor, 10- temperature transmitter, 11- RH sensor, 12- load cell, 13- load cell transmitter, 14- anemometer, 15- wattmeter.

Qc = ṁ a Cpa (hco−hci ) (4)

Another useful parameter, which demonstrates the thermal energy

fraction that is supplied by the solar collector, is the solar heat fraction
(SHF). This parameter was given by:

Eth
SHF = × 100
Eth + Eheater (5)

Since the designed dryer has a PV electricity generator, so a para-

meter, called solar electricity to electricity consumption (SECE), was
defined to describe the ability of the system to provide its required
energy independent of the grid. This parameter was obtained by the
following expression:

Epv
SECE = Fig. 5. Variations of solar irradiance, temperature and relative humidity of ambient air
Eheater + Efan+ Epump (6) during the day.

Specific moisture extraction rate (SMER), a parameter to describe

the dryer efficiency, was expressed as follow (Coşkun et al., 2017): 3. Results and discussion

m wd 3.1. Drying rate

SMER =
Eheater + Eth + Efan (7)
Variations of solar irradiance, temperature and RH of ambient air in
a typical day of experiments on April 2016 are indicated in Fig. 5. The
observations showed that solar irradiance was ranged between 607 and
2.5. Color analysis of dried products 943 W/m2. The highest ambient temperature was around 40 °C at
14 pm and the RH varied between 9 and 16% during the experiments.
Surface color of the fresh and dried tomato slices was measured Relative humidity variations of the drying air at the different acti-
using a colorimeter (TES 135A, TES Co., Taiwan). The CIE L∗ for vation RHs of the pump and the drying temperature of 60 °C are illu-
lightness, a∗ for redness, and b∗ for yellowness were determined. The strated in Fig. 6. The RH values were around 5% before putting the
hue angle (H° = tan−1(b∗/a∗) parameter was also calculated tomato slices on the dryer. After that, because of the high moisture
(Mortezapour et al., 2017; Purkayastha et al., 2013). removal rate, the RH raised abruptly at the all treatments. Passing the

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M. Dorouzi et al. Solar Energy 162 (2018) 364–371

50 Activation RH of 18% Activation RH of 23% Activation RH of 28%

Activation RH of 18% 400
Relative humidity (%)

Activation RH of 23%

Drying time (min)

40
Activation RH of 28%
350

30
300

20
250

10
200
60 65 70
Drying temperature (°C)
0
-60 0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420
Fig. 8. Drying time at the different conditions of RH and temperature.
Time (min)
Fig. 6. RH variations of the drying air at the different activation RHs and the drying

Electrical energy consumption (kWh)

temperature of 60 °C. 1.60 Activation RH of 18% Activation RH of 23% Activation RH of 28%

1.40

RH over the set point activates the regeneration system’s pump which 1.20
enhances moisture absorption from the circulating air and subsequently 1.00
drops its RH below the set point. This makes the regeneration pump
0.80
inactivated again. The reduction in moisture evaporation rate from the
product caused that the process was repeated more slowly over the 0.60
remaining time. It is clear from Fig. 6 that the RH of the drying air was 0.40
lower and the number of regeneration cycles was higher at the lower
0.20
activation RHs of the pump.
Variations of drying rate at the different activation RHs of the pump 0.00
60 65 70
and the drying temperature of 60 °C is depicted in Fig. 7. It is clear that Drying temperature (°C)
drying rate is significantly higher at the early stages of drying owing to
Fig. 9. Electrical energy consumption at the different conditions of RH and temperature.
the easy evaporation of free water from the products. Then, drying rate
declined because of increase in the RH of the circulating air. This
continued until the regeneration pump was activated by the RH control The reason is that the auxiliary heater should be used for more times to
system to reduce the RH of the drying air and consequently enhanced reach the air temperature to the higher set points. Furthermore, the
drying rate again. The process repeated several times during the test great temperature gradient between the circulating air and ambient
period depending on the adjusted activation RH of the regeneration intensifies thermal energy losses from the dryer which have to be
pump. Fig. 7 also illustrates that drying rate was slightly higher at the compensated by the heater. Experiments performed by Ziaforoughi and
lower activation RH of the pump due to the lower RH of the drying air Esfahani (2016) showed that electrical energy needed for potato slices
during the process. Moreover, drying rate had a falling trend over the drying (thickness of 7 mm) in a solar assisted infrared dryer, increased
time because of the lower evaporation rate of the bounded water. by 40% when the drying temperature increased from 50 to 70 °C.
Drying time at the different drying conditions are shown in Fig. 8. It is also clear from Fig. 9 that electrical energy consumption at the
Clearly, drying time decreased with the drying temperature. Based on temperature of 70 °C was significantly increased with activation RH of
the observations, it can be concluded that rising the temperature from the pump probably due to the huge thermal losses rate for the long
60 to 70 °C reduced drying time by 10%. In addition, drying time was drying time. Similar result was observed when the activation RH in-
27% shorter when applying the activation RH of 18% instead of 28%. creased from 18 to 23% at the temperature of 65 °C. But, raising the
activation RH, more than 23%, declined electrical energy consumption
probably due to the decrease in activation times of the pump. The
3.2. Electrical energy consumption lowest electricity consumption was about 0.65 kW h which was ob-
served at the temperature of 60 °C and the activation RH of 28%.
Electrical energy consumption at the different drying conditions Ziaforoughi and Esfahani (2016) achieved a minimum electrical energy
were determined and presented in Fig. 9. The observations indicated of 2.27 kW h/kg for potato slices drying by means of the solar assisted
that average electrical energy needed for drying the tomato slices in- infrared dryer.
creased by 70% when the drying temperature raised from 60 to 70 °C.
3.3. Solar heat fraction
5

Variations of solar heat fraction during the drying periods are illu-
4 Activation RH of 18%
strated in Fig. 10. It seems that since the evaporation rate and subse-
Drying rate (g/min)

Activation RH of 23%
quently the air temperature reduction were high at the early stages of
3 Activation RH of 28%
the tests, solar heat fraction was significantly low at these moments.
Afterwards, solar heat fraction continuously increased with time.
2 Fig. 11 indicated that the average solar heat fractions were ranged
between 38.5 and 63.4%. Yahya et al. (2016) reported the average solar
1 fractions of 66.7% for a solar dryer and 39.3% for a solar-assisted heat
pump dryer during cassava chips drying. Furthermore, Fig. 11 also
0
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420
shows that solar heat fraction increased by 31% with increasing the
drying temperature from 60 to 70 °C. Increasing the activation RH at
Time (min)
the drying temperatures of 60 and 65 °C improved solar heat fraction
Fig. 7. Drying rate variations at the different activation RHs of the pump and the drying mainly due to the increase in time of exposure to the sun light and
temperature of 60 °C.
reduction in electrical energy consumption. While, because of the

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M. Dorouzi et al. Solar Energy 162 (2018) 364–371

Drying temp. of 60°C Drying temp. of 65°C Drying temp. of 70°C

70 considerable increase in the electrical energy, solar heat fraction de-
60
creased with increase in activation RH at the temperature of 70 °C.
Solar heat fraction (%)

50
3.4. Specific moisture extraction rate (SMER)
40

30 Rising the drying temperature, on the one hand, increases electricity

consumption, but on the other hand decreases the available solar en-
20
ergy by decreasing the drying time. This consequently resulted in an
10 increase in total energy consumption and therefore a decrease in the
0 amounts of SMER with rising the temperature (Fig. 12). The observa-
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 tions indicated that the average value of SMER at the temperature of
Time (min) 60 °C was around 16% higher than that at 70 °C. It is clear from Fig. 12
Fig. 10. Cumulative solar heat fraction during the drying periods at the different drying that increasing the activation RH of the pump increased total energy
temperatures and activation RH of 23%. consumption and therefore decreased SMER. It can be said that the
average SMER value decreased by 11% when the activation RH in-
70 Activation RH of 18% Activation RH of 23% Activation RH of 28%
creased from 18% to 28%. The highest SMER value was found to be
65
around 0.274 kg/kW h which was achieved at the temperature of 60 °C
and the activation RH of 18%. While, a minimum value of 0.194 kg/
Solar heat fraction (%)

60 kW h was observed at the temperature of 70 °C and the activation RH of

55 28%. Since, in the present study, only one fourth of the capacity of the
dryer was loaded, it is reasonable that we would expect higher SMER
50
values if the dryer works at full capacity. The SMER values were ranged
45 between 0.2 and 0.36 kg/kW h for tomato slices drying in a heat pump
40 dryer (Şevik, 2014). Rabha et al. (2017) reported a SMER value of
0.11 kg/kW h for ginger slices drying in a forced convection solar
35
tunnel dryer equipped with a latent heat storage module. The evalua-
30 tion results of some various product dryers were given in Table 1.
60 65 70
Drying temperature (°C)
3.5. Electrical performance of photovoltaic-thermal system
Fig. 11. Variations of solar heat fraction at the different conditions of RH and tempera-
ture.
Hourly variation of solar electricity generated by the PV-T collector
to the consumed electricity at the different activation RHs and the
0.29 Activation RH of 18% Activation RH of 23% Activation RH of 28%
temperature of 60 °C is depicted in Fig. 13. SECE values below one
0.27 indicated that the electricity generated by the PVT collector covered
SMER (kg/kWh)

0.25 only a fraction of electrical energy needed for the process. In the early
stages of the experiments, when the drying rate was high and the
0.23
auxiliary heater was almost on, SECE was low. After that, the rate of
0.21 electricity consumption declined and therefore SECE exhibited an in-
0.19 creasing trend as for the activation RHs of 23 and 28%, it exceeded one.
Fig. 13 also indicates SECE variations of the system with the conven-
0.17
tional PV instead of the PVT collector at the activation RH of 18%,
0.15 drying temperature of 60 °C and the same conditions of ambient tem-
60 65 70
Drying temperature (°C) perature and solar irradiance. Although the liquid film on the PV sur-
face in the PVT collector decreases the received radiations, it seems that
Fig. 12. Variations of SMER at the different conditions of RH and temperature. its lower working temperature of the PV cells has compensated this

Table 1
Performance characteristics of some various product dryers.

Dryer type and drying condition Results of evaluation Reference

Microwave drying of tomato at vacuum of 6.65 kPa Drying time and SMER value were around 50 min and Durance and Wang (2002)
0.396 kg/kW h, respectively
Electrohydrodynamic drying of tomato slices (5 mm thickness) at voltages of 6, 8 Maximum drying rate was 0.016 g/min and SMER values were (Esehaghbeygi and Basiry
and 10 kV ranged between 0.218 and 0.813 kg/kW h (2011)
Saffron drying in heat pump assisted PV-T solar dryer at temperatures of 40, 50 The highest SMER value was 1.16 kg/kW h and solar fraction (Mortezapour et al. (2012)
and 60 °C ranged between 0.24 and 0.67
Infrared drying of tomato slices (thickness of 5 mm) at temperatures of 60, 70 and Drying time at temperature of 70 °C was around 90 min Sadin et al. (2014)
80 °C
Near infrared (NIR)-vacuum drying of pomegranate arils at temperatures of 60, Drying time varied between 100 and 430 min. Energy Alaei and Amiri Chayjan
70, 80 and 90 °C and absolute pressures of 2, 20, 40 and 60 kPa consumption was in the range of 0.206–2.072 kW h (2015)
Tomato drying under infrared radiation intensities of 1830, 2385, 2640, 2880 SMER values were ranged between 0.206 and 0.285 kg/kW h. Kocabiyik et al. (2015)
and 3165 W/m2 and air velocities of 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 m/s with slice thickness Drying time varied between 120 and 213 min
of 8 mm
Closed-loop heat pump drying of tomato at temperatures of 35, 40 and 45 °C and Minimum drying time and maximum SMER value were 420 min Coşkun et al. (2017)
slice thickness of 7 mm and 0.324 kg/kW h, respectively
Rice paddy drying in continuous band microwave dryer at three powers of (90, Product temperature varied between 30 and 55 °C. The Jafari et al. (2018)
270 and 450 W) and the conveyor speed of 0.24 m/min minimum and maximum amounts of SMER were 0.063 and
0.22 kg/kW h

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M. Dorouzi et al. Solar Energy 162 (2018) 364–371

Activation RH of 18% Activation RH of 23%

2.0 Activation RH of 28% Conventional PV+Activation RH of 18%
of 23 and 28% compared with the RH of 18% when applying the
1.8 temperature of 70 °C, the observations indicated an exception for this
treatment. Fig. 14 also shows that SECE decreased with increasing the
SECE (decimal)

1.6
1.4 drying temperature. It can be said that the average value of SECE was
1.2
approximately 2.2 times higher if tomato slices dried at the temperature
1.0
0.8 of 60 °C instead of 70 °C.
0.6
0.4
3.6. Color changes of the tomato slices
0.2
0.0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 The attractive red color of fresh tomato and dried tomato slices
Time (min) contributes to lycopene pigments, which influences consumer accep-
Fig. 13. Variations of solar electricity to consumed electricity (SECE) at the different
tance in the market place. In other words, consumers consider color or
activation RHs and the temperature of 60 °C. appearance as indicators of quality (Ringeisen et al., 2014), since it may
remarkably change during drying processes (Serhat Turgut et al., in
press). The results of the color changes including L∗, a∗, b∗, and H°
2
Activation RH of 18% Activation RH of 23% Activation RH of 28% values observed during the solar drying of tomato slices at the different
1.8
activation relative humidities and temperatures are displayed in
1.6
Fig. 15. Statistical analysis showed that surface color of the dried to-
SECE (decimal)

1.4
mato slices was significantly different (p < .05) with that for fresh one
1.2
(L∗: 40.46 ± 2.61, a∗: 35.60 ± 2.55, b∗: 19.30 ± 1.73, H°:
1
28.45 ± 1.15). Increasing the temperature from 60 to 70 °C and de-
0.8
creasing the RH from 28 to 18% resulted in an increase in L∗ values of
0.6
tomato slices. Similarly, the b∗ values increased by 30.1% as drying
0.4
temperature increased from 60 to 70 °C, indicating a gradual increase in
0.2
yellowness of the tomato slices. In contrast, the a∗ values of tomato
0
60 65 70 slices were significantly reduced with the increase of RH. In addition,
Drying temperature (°C) the H° values of tomato slices significantly increased with increasing of
Fig. 14. Variations of solar electricity to consumed electricity (SECE) at the different
the activation RH and the drying temperature.
conditions of RH and temperature. Generally, the increase in the temperature increased the L∗, b∗, and
H° values, whereas increase in the RH significantly decreased the values
of L∗ and a∗. Similarly, the increase in temperature increased the L∗ and
drawback and led to a slight increase in SECE values compared with the
H° values, and decreased the a∗/b∗ ratio of dried tomatoes slices (Abano
conventional PV module.
et al., 2014). The higher L∗ values are desirable in dried products and
The value of solar electricity to consumed electricity depends on
show the browning reaction reduced along drying process (Horuz et al.,
drying time, PV efficiency and solar irradiance while it has an inverse
2017). The decrease in lightness was associated with the formation of
relationship with electrical energy consumption. It is clear from Fig. 14
browning pigments, which generated due to non-enzymatic browning
that SECE improved when applying the higher activation RHs. The
or Maillard reactions at the high drying temperatures (Serhat Turgut
main reason is that the drying time and subsequently available solar
et al., in press). The a∗ value of dried tomatoes decreased with increase
energy increased significantly with the activation RH. But, since elec-
in the RH, that can be attributed to prolonged drying time at the ele-
trical energy consumption increased dramatically at the activation RHs
vated RH in dryer. The deep red color (higher a∗ values) of tomatoes

RH 18% RH 23% RH 28% Fig. 15. The color changes of tomato slices at dif-
50 40 ferent RHs and temperatures of solar drying process,
35 as given by lightness (L*), redness (a*), yellowness
40 (b*), and hue angle (H°).
30
30 25
a*
L*

20
20 15
10
10
5
0 0
60 65 70 60 65 70
Drying temperature (°C) Drying temperature (°C)
30 70
25 60
50
20
40
H°
b*

15
30
10 20
5 10
0 0
60 65 70 60 65 70
Drying temperature (°C) Drying temperature (°C)

370
M. Dorouzi et al. Solar Energy 162 (2018) 364–371

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