Performance evaluation of the semicylindrical solar tunnel dryer for drying handmade paper

Abstract

A walk in type semicylindrical solar tunnel dryer for drying 1500 handmade papers per batch has been commissioned at M/s Cellulosic Waste Recycling Education Project, Vidhya Bhawan Society, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. A solar tunnel dryer with 122.95 m2 solar collector area was sufficient for drying handmade paper from 53.85% to 9.96% moisture content (dry basis) in 4–5 h. In this paper the results are shown in terms of the variation of air temperature, solar flux density, relative humidity, air flow rate, moisture content, etc., which indicate that the performance of solar tunnel dryer was quite satisfactory. The performance of the dryer for drying handmade papers has been analyzed through no load and full load test. Technoeconomic analysis of solar tunnel dryers was also carried out by using different economic indicators.