Exergetic Assessment of Drying of Mint Leaves in a Heat Pump Dryer

Abstract

This article deals with the exergy analysis of a single layer drying process of mint leaves in a ground source heat pump tray dryer, which was designed and constructed in the Solar Energy Institute, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey. The drying process was realized at three various drying air temperatures of 40, 45 and 50C, and mass flow rate from 0.01 to 0.05 kg/s at a constant relative humidity of 16%. The effects of temperatures and mass flow rates on the exergy losses, exergy efficiencies and improvement potentials of the drying process were investigated. Maximum exergy efficiency of the drying chamber was obtained at a temperature of 50C and a drying air mass flow rate of 0.05 kg/s. The exergy efficiency values were obtained to vary from 76.03 to 97.24% at drying air temperatures of 40–50C with drying air mass flow rates of 0.01–0.05 kg/s. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This study is useful for not only producers of dry mints, but also for all dry herbs. It may be successfully used in the design and performance evaluation of heat pump dryers.

Performance assessment and optimization of industrial pasta drying

“…The exergy losses were associated with the transfer of exergy through material and energy streams to the surroundings [52]. Similar results were obtained in the literature [28,29]. Similar results were obtained in the literature [28,29].…”

Mathematical modelling and estimation of effective moisture diffusivity and activation energy, exergy analysis of thin layer drying of pineapple

“…The exergy efficiency of the tray dryer was increased with increase in drying air temperature during the drying of pineapple is presented in Figure 10. Similar findings were reported on the drying of green olive (Colak & Hepbasli, 2007) and mint leaves (Colak et al, 2008).…”

A Comparative Study on Exergetic Performance Assessment for Drying of Broccoli Florets in Three Different Drying Systems

“…[13][14][15][16][17] In these previous studies, the drying process was thermodynamically modeled by Dincer and Sahin, [14] and drying of different products such as wheat kernel, [18] pistachio, [13] red pepper slices, [15] potato, [16,19] apple slices, [20] pumpkin, [17] laurel leaves, [21,22] pasta, [23] green olive, [24] and mint, [25] was evaluated in terms of energetic and exergetic aspects using various drying devices, such as fluidized bed dryers, solar drying cabinets, cyclone-type dryers, convective-type hot air dryers, and heat pump dryers. In addition, other exergetic studies on drying also included a solar greenhouse, [26] a freeze-drying process, [27] a detailed review, [28] and mathematical modeling.…”