DYNA JOURNAL ENGINEERING

Key words:

sistema híbrido, abrasivos, concentrador cilindro-parabólico, acero inoxidable, hybrid system, abrasives, culindrical-parabolic collector, stainless steel, reflectance, polished.

Article type:

ARTICULO DE INVESTIGACION / RESEARCH ARTICLE

Section:

RESEARCH ARTICLES

The proposed work describes the construction of a compact dehydrated hybrid system with solar energy application using cylindrical-parabolic collectors (CPC), whose reflective material is stainless steel. This material is vital to the system due to the steel plates' high durability and hardness above 190 vickers, and their easy acquisition. Using a standard polishing process the maximum height of the roughness Sz, among other parameters was reduced considerably. The maximum average efficiency reflective was 0.70. With this a PTC is herein presented able to achieve sufficient thermal efficiency capable of covering the energy demand of processes such as is the case with the chili-pepper dehydration. Its efficiency is validated by the comparison with other CPCs commercially available, with similar characteristics.


The proposed CPC system has a brick tunnel coated internally with cement. Its dimensions are 1.8 m x 2.3 m x 21 m and a conventional energy support module. The product is placed on racks inside the tunnel, through which hot air flows injected by means of a fan. The required temperature ranges from 70 to 90 °C, depending on the type of product. The drying time is about 36 hours. Its main advantages over other dehydrating thermal systems using fossil fuels are that it has a cost reduction of approximately 40% with a similar reduced greenhouse gas emission, while also being able to dehydrate large quantities of product.