• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.48-57
• /
• 1982

In order to improve the quality of traditionally sun-dried red peppers and to increase the efficiency of drying performance, three types of solar dryers were designed and built, and drying performance of the solar dryers was compared to traditional sun drying. Results obtained from the experiment are summarized as fallows: 1. The air temperature and relative humidity profiles over a 8-hour period measured at the specified locations in the drying chamber of solar dryers appeared to have large variation in each dryer. The rate of drying increased with the temperature rise in the drying chamber of the solar dryer. 2. In general. drying with solar dryers proceeded faster than traditional sun drying. With A'-type of solar dryer developed in the second experiment it was possible to dry red peppers in seven days from an initial moisture content of 80% to safe storage conditions. The drying time with the A'-type solar drier was 50% shorter compared to traditional sun drying. 3. Red peppers appeared to have an increasing or constant-rate drying period until the weight of the product was reduced to about one half the initial weight, followed by a falling-rate drying period. When the dried red peppers were exposed to the atmospere during the night, the moisture content increased as much as 6%, which is much higher than for the grains. 4. It was suggested from the experiment that either a heat storage system or a supplemental heating system in the solar dryer was desirable for more efficient drying operation. 5. It was shown that the solar dryer developed in this study may be suitable for drying other vegetables and fishes, and also offered additional advantages of saving in drying time, maintaining sanitation and minimizing contamination by dust, insects and unfavorable weather condition.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
• /
• v.35 no.6
• /
• pp.25-33
• /
• 2015

In this study, heating performance of the air-cooled heat pump with vapor-injection (VI) cycles, re-heater and solar heat storage tank was investigated experimentally. Devices used in the experiment were comprised of a VI compressor, re-heater, economizer, variable evaporator, flat-plate solar collector for hot water, thermal storage tank, etc. As working fluid, refrigerant R410A for heat pump and propylene glycol (PG) for solar collector were used. In this experiment, heating performance was compared by three cycles, A, B and C. In case of Cycle B, heat exchange was conducted between VI suction refrigerant and inlet refrigerant of condenser by re-heater (Re-heater in Fig. 3, No. 3) (Cycle B), and Cycle A was not use re-heater on the same operating conditions. In case of Cycle C, outlet refrigerant from evaporator go to thermal storage tank for getting a thermal energy from solar thermal storage tank while re-heater also used. As a result, Cycle C reached the target temperature of water in a shorter time than Cycle B and Cycle A. In addition, it was founded that, as for the coefficient of heating performance($COP_h$), the performance in Cycle C was improved by 13.6% higher than the performance of Cycle B shown the average $COP_h$ of 3.0 and by 18.9% higher than the performance of Cycle A shown the average $COP_h$ of 2.86. From this results, It was confirmed that the performance of heat pump system with refrigerant re-heater and VI cycle can be improved by applying solar thermal energy as an auxiliary heat source.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.15 no.2 s.46
• /
• pp.107-117
• /
• 2006

The status of water splitting thermochemical cycle for hydrogen production was reviewed in this article. Mass production of hydrogen could be possible using the thermochemical process which is similar to the concept of conventional chemical reaction system if the high temperature heat source is available. The mediators (chemicals and reagents) should be used to split chemically stable water, and should be recycled in a closed cycle in order to be environmentally acceptable. Though there is no process to reach commercial stage, IS cycle, two-step cycles based on metallic oxide such as ZnO/Zn, $Fe_3O_4/FeO$ and the associated cycles are attracted due to their possibilities of application. Development of materials for high temperature and/or corrosive conditions during thermochemical process is still important topic in some thermochemical processes.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.43-50
• /
• 2012

Metal-metal oxide (M-M oxide) cermet solar selective coatings with a double cermet layer film structure were deposited on the Al-deposited glass substrate by using a directed current (DC) magnetron sputtering technology. M oxide (CrO and ZrO) was used as the ceramic component in the cermets, and Cr and Zr used as the metallic components. In addition, black Cr (Cr-$Cr_2O_3$ cermet) solar selective coatings were deposited on the Ni-plated Cu substrate by using a electroplating method for comparison. The thermal stability tests were carried out for performance evaluation of solar coatings. Reflectance measurements were used to evaluate both solar absorptance(${\alpha}$) and thermal emittance (${\epsilon}$) of the solar coatings before and after thermal testing by using a spectrometer. Optical properties of optimized cermet solar coatings were ${\alpha}{\simeq}0.94-0.96$ and ${\epsilon}{\simeq}0.1$ ($100^{\circ}C$). The results of thermal stability test of M-M oxide solar coatings showed that the Cr-CrO cermet solar selective coatings were more stable than the Zr-ZrO cermet selective coatings at temperature of both $400^{\circ}C$ in air and $450^{\circ}C$ in vacuum. The black Cr solar selective coatings were degraded in air at temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The main optical degradation modes of these coatings were diffusion of metal atoms, and oxidation.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.9-16
• /
• 2012

Nanofluids using Carbon Nanotubes have a excellent thermal characteristic. In this study, for increasing the efficiency of solar collector, the thermal conductivity and viscosity of Ethanol-Oxidized Multi-walled Carbon Nanofluids were measured. Nanofluids were manufactured by ultra-sonic dispersing Oxidized Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes(OMWCNTs) in ethanol at the rates of 0.0005 ~ 0.1 vol%. The thermal conductivity and viscosity of manufactured nanofluids were measured at the low temperature($10^{\circ}C$), the room temperature($25^{\circ}C$) and the high temperature($70^{\circ}C$). For measuring thermal conductivity and viscosity, we used transient hot-wire method and rotational digital viscometer, respectively. As a result, under given temperature conditions, thermal conductivity of the 0.1 vol% nanofluids improved 33.74% ($10^{\circ}C$), 33.14% ($25^{\circ}C$) and 32.36% ($70^{\circ}C$), and its viscosity increased by 37.93% ($10^{\circ}C$), 31.92% ($25^{\circ}C$) and 29.42% ($70^{\circ}C$) than the base fluids.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.37-44
• /
• 2005

An experimental study was conducted to analyze performance of a heating system with variation of control logic of the system. The system uses a solar as heat source and composed with heat pump that uses R-22 as working fluid. The difference between the developed system and the commercially available heating system is working fluid. The solar assisted heating system which was widely distributed in the market uses water as a working fluid. It could be freezing in case of the temperature drops down under freezing point. The anti-freezing fluids such as methyl-alcohol or ethylene-glycol are mixed with the water to protect the freezing phenomena. However, the system developed in this study uses a refrigerant as a working fluid. It makes the system to run under zero degree temperature conditions. Another difference of the developed system compare with commercial available one is auxiliary heating method. The developed system has removed an auxiliary electric heater that has been used in conventional solar assisted heating system. Instead of the auxiliary electric heater, an air source heat exchanger which generally used as an evaporator of a heat pump was adapted as a backup heating device of the developed system. As results, an efficiency of the developed system is higher than a solar assisted heat pump with auxiliary electric heater. The merit of the developed system is on the performance increment when the system operates at a lower solar energy climate conditions. In case of the developed system operates at a normal condition, COP of the solar collector driven heat pump is higher than the air source heat exchanger driven heat pump's.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.47-54
• /
• 2007

Interests on renewable energy are increased due to oil price and environmental problems aroused from the fossil energy usage. In this study, performances of a solar assisted hybrid heat pump system are analyzed by experimental method. The developed system could runs at two types of operating mode. When the storage temperature is higher than the set temperature, the stored hot water in storage tank is supplied to the load directly. On the other hand, when the storage temperature lower than the set temperature, the water inside of the storage tank is used as heat source of the heat pump. In this study, the system control temperature for the alternation of the operating mode is set to $40^{\circ}C$ of the storage tank outlet. As results, it is founded that the COP of the developed heat pump system shows between 3.0 and 3.5. It is resonable performance for the heating system with a renewable energy as secondary heat source. The solar collect used in this study could supplies heat to the storage tank at over 400 W/m2 solar intensity. If the irradiation is lower than the 400 W/m2, the circulation pump stored and it could not supply heat to the storage tank. It is found that the difference temperature between the outlet of the storage tank and collector is $3^{\circ}C$. Even though, the extended study should be conducted to get a optimum performance of the developed system with various operating condition and control strategies.

• Solar Energy
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.44-52
• /
• 1991

The benefits of thermal stratification in sensible heat storage systems has been considered and studying by several investigators. In this paper, the basic data which is hard to obtain normally through the experiment were obtainable through the computer simulation. The major objectives of the study were to assess the benefits of stratified storage in residential solar water heating application and to suggest the optimum design parameters. From the computer simulation, following results were obtained. 1. The solar load fraction increases with increasing the number of tank segments. In these simulation, the magnitude of the improvement was about 10%. 2. The solar load fraction increases when the ratio of diameter to height of the tank(H/D) increases to 3, but H/D exceed 3 then, the solar load fraction decreases. In these simulation, the magnitude of the improvement was about 3%. 3. Increasing the collector flow rate slightly improved the performance of the mixed storage system(Node=1). But, for the stratified storage system(Node=N), the solar load fraction increases with decreasing flow rate until the point is reached at which the collector outlet temperature reaches the boiloff limit of $100^{\circ}C$ over some portion of the simulation period.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.357-370
• /
• 1982

Recent concern regarding price and availability of fossil fuels has spurred the interest in alternative sources for farm crop drying. Among the available options such as biomass energy, wind power, nuclear energy and solar energy etc., the increasing attention is being directed to the utilization of heat from solar energy especially for farm crop drying. Even though solar energy is dispersed over a large land area and only a relatively small amount of energy can be simply collected, the advantages of solar energy is that the energy is free, non-polluting. The study reported here was designed to help supply the informations for the development of simple and relatively inexpensive solar warehouse for farm crop drying and storage. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to determine the performance of the solar collector fabricated, to compare solar supplemented heat drying with natural air drying and to develop a simulation model of temperature in stored grain, which can be used to study the effects due to changes in ambient air temperature. For those above objectives, solar collector was fabricated from available materials. Corrugated steel galvanized sheet, painted flat black, was used as absorbers and clear 0.2mm polyethylene sheet was the cover material. The warehouse for rough rice drying and storage was constructed with concrete block, and the solar collector was used as the roof of warehouse instead of original roofing system of it. The results obtained in this study were as follows: 1. The thermal efficiency of the solar collector was average 26 percent and the overall heat transfer coefficient of the collector was approximately $25kJ/hr.m^2\;^{\circ}K$. 2. Solar heated air was sufficient to dry one cubic meter of rough rice from 23.5 to 15.0 percent in 7 days and natural air was able to dry the same amount of rough rice from 20.0 to 5 percent in l2 days. 3. Drying with solar heat reduced the required drying time to dry the same amount of rough rice into a half compared to natural air drying, but overdrying problems of the bottom layer were so severe that these problems should be thoroughly analyzed. 4. Simulation model of temperature in stored grain was developed and the results of predicted temperature agreed well with test results. 5. Based on those simulated temperature, changes in the grain-temperature were a large at the points of the wallside and the damage of the grain would be severe at the contact area of wall.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.21-29
• /
• 2015

In this study, the performance of hybrid solar air-water heater when the heated air was used as inlet air was investigated during air and liquid were heated simultaneously. Temperature difference between inlet air and ambient was set as $0^{\circ}C$, $13^{\circ}C$ and $22^{\circ}C$ and it was maintained during the daily operation. As a result, thermal efficiency of liquid heating was increased when the inlet air temperature was increased and heat gain of the water in heat storage tank was also increased with increment of temperature difference between inlet air and ambient temperature. On the contrary to this, the decrement of air heating efficiency and total efficiency of collector was confirmed with increment of inlet air temperature and it is considered that heat gain of liquid side is lower than heat loss of air side that occurring by using heated air as inlet air of collector. So, from these results, maximum temperature that the liquid in heat storage tank can reach was expected to increase if the return air or any heated air was used as inlet air. But air and total efficiency of hybrid solar air-water is decreased, so using outdoor air as inlet air is considered as better way on perspective of using of solar thermal energy by hybrid solar collector. However, it is hard to conclude that using outdoor air is better than heated air on the perspective of energy saving of building because the performance of heat storage performance was increased even air and total thermal efficiency was decreased, so the necessity of more profound consideration about these result in further research was confirmed for putting the hybrid solar air-water heater to practical use.