products: Large Driers for Industry and Agriculture
The essential parts of a solar drier are: a solar air heater and a drying room where the product is processed. Depending on type and application, it may also comprise a backup burner, control devices, air conduits, fans, storage rooms, etc.
A special application of great importance is coal drying prior to burning it in power plants.
The solar air heater is usually of the same type as the air pre-heaters, but it may be of a different design if there are special temperature or functioning requirements. Careful design is required to ensure that the technical objectives are met while the economical parametres still allow solar heat to be less expensive than fossil fuel heat.
When exposed to full solar radiation, our low temperature solar air heaters can efficiently raise the temperature of the air by about 400C above ambient air temperature. Depending on application, we can also manufacture driers for higher or lower or variable temperature.
Some space is required for the installation of the solar air heater. Due to its light weight, it can easily be mounted on any roof or wall, or installed on the ground.
Our new technology is protected by existing and pending patents. There is also considerable know-how in the methods of design, manufacture and optimisation of the solar air heaters and in the method of optimisation and manufacture of the solar radiation absorber.
This is the solar air heater we manufactured for a large drier of vegetable products.
To ensure maximum performance is achieved for each application, every solar air heater for driers must be appropriately sized and designed. Therefore, you can ask us for a FREE assessment and we will tell you:
- the type of solar air heater needed
- its size
- its price
- general installation aspects
- its payback time
- the annual savings that can be made
- its warranty period
We need to know the following to make the assessment:
- the product to be dried
- the maximum temperature allowed in the process
- the maximum ambient air temperature during drying
- the size of the batch of product to be dried (in tonnes)
- the volume of the drier room that will be filled with produce (the produce plus the space around it)
- the type of fossil fuel (or electricity) you have available as backup and the price of that fossil fuel
- the distance between the desired location of the solar air heater (usually the roof of a building) and the drier
Please include the above information (if available) in your e-mail.
We have designed improved solar air heaters which are very efficient yet inexpensive. During their warranty period they can generate savings on fossil fuel costs much larger than the cost of the solar drier itself, so it is guaranteed to make a good return on investment.
They can be used in all climates. Their payback time will depend on the amount of energy they can deliver, which in turn depends on the amount of solar radiation they receive. For this reason, a careful design has to be made so that the solar air heater will be economical in those conditions.
If you require that the drier must work at a certain capacity whatever solar energy is available at that moment, a burner will have to supplement the heat delivered by our solar air heater.
We can also install our solar air heaters as air pre-heaters for already existing driers that have fossil fuel burners. This way your consumption of fossil fuel will be reduced proportionally with the solar energy available at that moment.
Below is shown a solar drier for tomatoes.
The solar air heater is made out of parts that have to be assembled on-location. We have developed a standard set of modules that can be easily installed on different support surfaces or directly on the ground. The assembly and installation can easily be done by local installers.
Please feel free to contact us with details about your desired solar drier.