Exergetic evaluation of drying of laurel leaves in a vertical ground-source heat pump drying cabinet |
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Authors: | Ebru Hancioglu Kuzgunkaya Arif Hepbasli |
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Affiliation: | 1. Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Solar Energy Science Branch, Ege University, TR-35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey;2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ege University, TR-35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey |
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Abstract: | This paper is concerned with the exergy analysis of the single layer drying process of laurel leaves in a ground-source heat pump drying cabinet, which was designed and constructed in the Solar Energy Institute, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey. The effects of drying air temperature on exergy losses, exergy efficiencies and exergetic improvement potential of the drying process are investigated. The results have indicated that exergy efficiencies of the dryer increase with rising the drying air temperature. Moreover, the laurel leaves are sufficiently dried at the temperatures ranging from 40 to 50°C with relative humidities varying from 16 to 19% and a drying air velocity of 0.5 m s?1 during the drying period of 9 h. The exergy efficiency values are obtained to range from 81.35 to 87.48% based on the inflow, outflow and loss of exergy, and 9.11 to 15.48% based on the product/fuel basis between the same drying air temperatures with a drying air mass flow rate of 0.12 kg s?1. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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Keywords: | laurel leaves drying heat pump ground-source heat pump exergy analysis |
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