Honeysuckle drying by using hybrid concentrator photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) dryer: an experimental study

This paper presents experimental performance of a concentrator photovoltaic thermal (CPV/T) dryer for drying of honeysuckle flowers. The dryer consists of a perspex box structure. Heat for drying is provided by the excess heat of concentrator PV module and one fan powered by this concentrator PV ventilate the dryer. To investigate the experimental performances of the solar dryer for drying of honeysuckle flowers, 2 full scale experimental runs were conducted. Of which one experimental runs were conducted by hot air and the drying air temperature varied from 65 degrees C to 80 degrees C, the drying time was 5 hours. The other t experimental runs were conducted for natural sun drying for comparison, and the drying time was 5 hours too. Experiments were conducted for drying of honeysuckle in the month of June, 2012. Various half hourly experimental data namely moisture evaporated, honeysuckle surface temperatures, ambient air temperature and humidity, etc. were recorded to evaluate heat and mass transfer for the proposed system. The experimental results show that the quality of hot air dried products in terms of color, form, texture, etc. was high-quality dried products.