Desenvolvimento e estudo experimental de um secador solar aplicado na secagem de banana.

Abstract

This paper presents the development and experimental study of a solar dryer with a focus on appropriate technologies for Brazilian agriculture, spreading the culture of renewable energy and contributing to promoting sustainable development. It is a solar dryer of indirect exposure to solar collector and coupled drying chamber, presenting innovations, among which the use of a thermal capacitor inside the solar collector and a drying air drive system powered by photovoltaic solar energy to obtain forced convection. Other innovations were the choice of the relationship between volumes of the solar collector and drying chamber of 5:1 and the installation TH11 sensors that measure temperature and relative humidity, connected to an Arduino board. The dryer developed was subjected to experiments in Silver banana drying (Musa spp.) Which were collected mass of product data, temperature and relative humidity for assessment of drying process efficiency, the drying kinetics curves and the thermal efficiency of the solar dryer and its components. The innovations have enabled used air temperature inside the drying chamber on average 50°C ± 5°C and relative humidity of the drying air in the average of 30% ± 5%. The solar dryer was efficient, because the time required for bananas reach the moisture content values on a wet basis of about 25% was 840 minutes (14 hours) compatible with the times reported in the literature for equipment equivalents. It was found that the drying process behaved as in traditional dryers with an average mass efficiency in the drying process of around 83.95%. The Arduino, guaranteed measuring temperature and relative humidity drying the entrances and exits of the solar collector and drying chamber, which enabled the realization of the energy of the solar drier balance, resulting in the calculation of the thermodynamic efficiency of the solar dryer which was 26.47%, and determination of other thermodynamic properties of the drying air. The drying curves adjusted to the mathematical model of Page, had an average coefficient of determination of 99.06% and can thus be used to predict the fruit drying time to the desired point. The conclusion of this work, the solar dryer developed meets the demands necessary for banana drying processes, in addition to being low cost and easy operation, with efficiency and reliability, compared to similar equipment, which justifies its viability.