PARA-RUBBER SHEET DRYING WITH THE COMBINED SOURCES OF SOLAR ENERGY AND SOLAR POND

The objectives of this research was to study the efficiency of two para - rubber sheet drying methods; solar drying and solar drying combine solar pond. The solar energy house of 1.8 x 2 x 3 in(3) with the capacity of 100 sheets was constructed in Amphoe Mueang Khon Kaen district,Khon Kaen province Thailand, in conjunction with the solar pond which was 8 meters in diameter and 2.5 meters in depth. In order to evaluate energy using aspect, the energy using studies were divided to 2 systems. System 1 was only solar drying. System 11 was using solar drying at day time and solar pond at night time. The initial humidity of para-rubber sheet was about 29 - 33% respectively. The experimental results showed that the temperature distribution in the solar energy house was uniform. The night time average inside temperature solar energy house was higher than that outside 3 degrees C, 10 degrees C for system I. II respectively. The solar energy house was that system I required the longest time 120 hours while system II required the shortest time 84 hours. Moreover, it was found that, the humidity of para-rubber sheet range was about 0.5 - 1.25% after drying.