Energy, exergy, exergoeconomic and exergo-environmental analyses of a large scale solar dryer with PCM energy storage medium

In this paper, performance, exergoeconomic and exergo-environmental assessments of a large scale solar dryer with energy storage medium were presented. The usability of the system for high capacity industrial drying processes in terms of performance and energy use costs compared to existing drying techniques in the literature was clearly indicated in the study. Thus, exergoeconomic and environmental sustainability analyses were handled together for the first time, and all performance values of a high capacity industrial solar dryer were determined in detail. The system components were examined separately in exergoeconomic analysis. As a result of the exergoeconomic analysis, it was found that the fans had the highest cost of exergy destruction with $ 0.2286/h and the lowest exergy efficiency with 55.96%. Therefore, it was concluded that fans were the most important component need to be developed. When the system was considered in terms of environmental impact analysis, energy payback time was designated as approximately 6.82 years. CO2 mitigation for the expected lifetime of the system was calculated as 99.60 tones. The performed evaluations indicated that the developed system was a highly efficient technology for the industrial drying process both in terms of energy use performance and environmental sustainability. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper presented performance, exergoeconomic, and exergo-environmental assessments of a large scale solar dryer with energy storage medium. The study indicated the usability of the system for high capacity industrial drying processes and highlighted the importance of further development of the fans component. The evaluations demonstrated that the developed system was highly efficient in terms of energy use performance and environmental sustainability.