UTILIZATION OF SOLAR ENERGY FOR DRYING SUNFLOWER SEEDS | ||||
| Journal of Soil Sciences and Agricultural Engineering | ||||
| Article 2, Volume 4, Issue 3, March 2013, Page 125-146 PDF (399.37 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jssae.2013.51791 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
| A. M. Matouk1; M. M. El-Kholy2; Solaf Abd El-Raheam2 | ||||
| 1Agric. Eng. Dept, Fac. of Agric., Mansoura Univ | ||||
| 2Agric. Eng. Res. Institute, Dokki, Giza | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| A study was carried out to test and evaluate the possibility of using greenhouse type solar dryer for drying sunflower seeds and the effects of the drying process on seeds quality and fungal load count. The experimental treatments included three different levels of air velocity (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 m/sec), and three different types of solar collector absorber plate (perforated aluminum sheet, perforated iron sheet, and plastic wire net). The changes in seeds moisture content was monitored versus time until reaching the moisture content of about (9% w.b.). Solar radiation flux incident, bulk temperature of seeds, air temperature and relative humidity inside and outside the solar drier, drying efficiency of the dryer, fungal load and the final quality of seeds in terms of oil stability were measured and determined. The results showed that, the hourly average available solar radiations ranged from 476.6 to 586.6 W/m2 during the experimental work. Also, the solar collector of the dryer could increase the air temperature by about 11.8, 14.8 and 19.10C and decreased the air relative humidity by about 25.2, 28 and 30.6% based on the type of solar collector absorber plate. The reduction in moisture content of sunflower seeds was varied and increased with the increase of drying air temperature and velocity inside the solar drier. The greenhouse type solar dryer having perforated aluminum absorber plate operated at air velocity of 1.5 m/sec achived the minimum drying time of 9 hr in comparison with 10 and 25 hr for the perforated iron sheet and the plastic wire net, respectively. The corresponding drying time for the traditional drying method was about 58 hours. Meanwhile, the percentage of free fatty acids of the extracted oil ranged from 1.74 to 3.97% which means no rancidity of seeds. The drying efficiency of the solar dryers increased with the increase of drying air temperature and air velocity and it was ranged from 28.18 to 40.61%. | ||||
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