Performance Assessment of Greenhouse Solar Dryer with and without Evacuated Tube Solar Collector under no-load

Abstract

In this paper, the performance assessment of a hybrid active greenhouse solar dryer is carried out under no load condition. The hybrid greenhouse solar dryer consists of evacuated tube solar collector and heat exchanger kept inside the dryer that also act as the drying bed. The performance of developed dryer is evaluated with and without evacuated tube solar collector. The maximum room temperature inside the dryer with collectors is found 21.4% higher than the dryer without ETC. The average temperature difference between the room and ambient air temperature for the case of dryer with collector is 16°C while in case of dryer without ETC it is 7.51°C only. Hence the developed dryer is effective for drying of high moisture crops.