Design of a Fruit Dryer Using Waste Heat from Geothermal Power Plant

• Main Authors: Diego Estuardo Ayala Leiva, 郭佑達
• Other Authors: Jiunn-Chi Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/28797543676575212683

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 國際環境永續發展碩士在職專班國際專班 === 99 === This study proposes the design of a fruit dryer that uses waste heat from the Zunil geothermal power plant in Guatemala. Based primarily on mode, operation, feed class, throughput and the fragility of the product; it was found that the most suitable dryer for this study is a batch cabinet dryer. The dryer capacity is to dry a material flow rate of 40-45 kg/h of fruit per batch, which allow it dries about 500 kg of fruit per day. In the aim of finding the dryer design variables, Simprosys 2.1 software was used to simulate the drying process, and analyze mass/heat balance. Waste water coming out from the Zunil geothermal field at T = 800C will flow through the heat exchanger as the source of heat. From the drying process simulation, it was found that the most suitable working range of drying air temperatures is set between 35 and 600C; it was also noted that an air flow rate of 15,000 kg/h has the highest values of drying efficiencies for all temperatures; another design variable that was determined is the air velocity, from the results obtained, it was found that 2.5 m/s is the must suitable air velocity for the design; based on this results and a considering a circular transverse section, the suggested dryer chamber diameter and length are 0.637 m and 3.184 m respectively. An environmental impact assessment of constructing a fruit convective batch dryer at the Zunil I geothermal power plant was made using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) methodology. The results of the EIA shows around 64% of impacts are positive, and 36% are in the category of negative impacts which indicates this project is feasible and practical to be implemented.