Energy and exergy analysis of greenhouse drying of ivy gourd and Turkey berry

Abstract

This study deals with the performance evaluation of a simple low-cost green-house dryer using energy and exergy analysis. Drying experiments were conduct-ed under the open Sun and in greenhouse dryer with two different cover sheets of ultra violet polyethylene and drip lock under passive mode and active mode for two vegetables with medicinal values: ivy gourd (coccinia grandis) and turkey berry (solanum torvum). Thermal efficiency, exergy efficiency, and improvement potential were evaluated and presented. The experiment showed that perfor-mance of the greenhouse dryer was better than the open sun drying. Thermal ef-ficiencies were up to 30.64% and exergy efficiency values were up to 0.09% and the maximum values were obtained during the drying of ivy gourd with the drip lock sheet under active mode. The results showed that this dryer could be used for drying agricultural products at low cost by the farmers in order to produce value added products from their harvested products.