Analysis of indirect solar dryer with PCM energy storage material: Energy, economic, drying and optimization

As the food processing industry needs a lot of heat energy to remove moisture from agricultural products, there is a greater emphasis on solar energy. In this study, the energy analysis and economic feasibility of Indirect Solar Dryer (ISD) comprises a blower, three different corrugated absorber plate solar collector setups (without Phase Change Material Energy Storage (PCMES), with PCMES, and with fins inserted PCMES). The drying time of the bitter gourd slices in the developed ISD setup is significantly decreased compared to natural drying. The Weibull model is selected as the best mathematical model for predicting drying behavior based on statistical variables. The ISD's energy analysis reported the thermal efficiencies, energy consumption, and moisture extraction rate. The ISD with fins inserted PCMES performed better than the other two setups in energy performances. However, because of the usage of fins, the same setup has a slightly higher (3.1%) capital cost than the setup without fins. ISD with fins inserted PCMES is chosen as the best setup based on energy and economic parameters from the multiple criteria decision-making techniques. The selected setup produced a robust and high-quality product; and, thus, recommended for drying agricultural products in food drying industries.