Energy and exergy analyses of solar-assisted fluidized bed drying integrated with biomass furnace

A hybrid solar-biomass fluidized bed drying system was designed, evaluated and developed. The system was comprised of a fluidized bed, a solar collector, and a biomass furnace. This solar-assisted fluidized bed dryer integrated biomass furnace was used to investigated the drying kinetics of paddy. The average temperature of the air drying were 61 and 78 °C. The paddy's moisture content was dried to 14% from 20% (wet basis) with a mass flow rate of 0.125 kg/s. The performance of the fluidized bed drying system was assessed base on energy and exergy analyses. The specific energy consumption (SEC), solar fractions, biomass fractions, thermal and exergy efficiencies were obtained. The SEC and drying times were lower in hybrid solar-biomass fluidized bed drying system compared to solar dryers.