Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Thin layer drying kinetics of grapes dried in a hybrid solar-electric dryer
Submission Author:
Gabriel M. B. Cruz , SP
Co-Authors:
Gabriel M. B. Cruz, Vinicius Augusto Camatta Santana, frederico hippert, Bárbara Caroline Ricci Nunes, Cristiana Brasil Maia
Presenter: Gabriel M. B. Cruz
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-0872
Abstract
Solar energy is an abundant and free energy source that can be explored in sustainable technologies, which can increase energy security and make new production methods. This study aims at analyzing the drying process of grapes, which took 27 hours to remove all moisture, using a hybrid solar-electric dryer (HSED) built in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The drying kinetics is evaluated, and five typical mathematical models are analyzed. The moisture content variation as the grapes dry in the HSED was measured to analyze the drying curve behavior and fitted to five thin layer drying models. For that, grapes were placed on a tray inside the HSED suspended by a load cell. The HSED used was equipped with sensors to analyze temperature and humidity variation throughout the drying process and with an electric heater that could be activated automatically to obtain a stable temperature. Firstly, it was concluded that the thermal pretreatment conducted for raisin production does not have a significant impact on the drying curve and on the initial moisture content, which was found to be 81.7%. Finally, it was concluded that the Midilli model yielded the best fit for BRS Vitória grape drying on the HSED when analyzing the chi-square, root mean square error, and mean bias error.
Keywords
hybrid solar-electric drying, grape drying, drying kinetics, Statistical Analysis
