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Applied Thermal Engineering (2015)

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Applied Thermal Engineering

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / a p t h e r m e n g

Research Paper

Studies on combined cooling and drying of agro products using air

cooled internal heat recovered vapour absorption system
R. Sivakumar a,*, A. Elayaperumal b, R. Saravanan a
a
b

Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anna University, Chennai 25, India
Engineering Design Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anna University, Chennai 25, India

H I G H L I G H T S

Air cooled ammoniawater absorption heat pump cum cooling system for drying and cold storage is developed and tested.
Combined cooling and drying mode operation in the system was able to achieve overall COP of 1.41.8.
Discussion of drying characteristics and parameters of nylon sago and simulated cold storage system is presented.

A R T I C L E

I N F O

Article history:
Received 11 May 2015
Accepted 11 October 2015
Available online
Keywords:
Simultaneous cooling and drying
Absorption system
Nylon sago
Bin drying
Drying characteristics

A B S T R A C T

The objective of this study is to develop an energy ecient heat pump combined storage and drying technology for agricultural products, to reduce the net energy consumption compared to conventional storage
and drying systems. An experimental study of an improved air cooled condenser and absorber in ammonia
water vapour absorption refrigeration system and using more internal heat recovery by generator absorber
heat exchangers is carried out simultaneously using the generated hot air for drying and better storage
of the agricultural product. Vertical annulus radial grain bin dryer of 5 kg/h capacity is adopted to suit
10.5 kW for cold storage ammonia absorption refrigeration. The effect of heat sink and evaporator temperatures on the coecient of performance (COP) of the system and the heat rejected from condenser
and absorber for drying applications are studied. The temperature of the air at the outlet of the condenser/
absorber is around 4353 C for various atmospheric conditions and is used for drying of the selected
agro product (nylon sago) in the bin dryer. The drying characteristics of nylon sago, heat pump capacity
and combined COP of the system are presented with descriptions. It is found that the combined COP of
the system varies from 1.8 to 1.4 when the heat rejection temperature is between 53 C and 43 C respectively under actual operating conditions.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Cooling, heating and power generation systems are the most important energy consumers in the world. To overcome the individual
system losses, transmission losses and to minimize the total energy
consumption, combined cooling heating and power generation
(CCHP) systems are developed with ammonia absorption refrigeration as Kalina cycle. This CCHP system utilizes low form of waste
heat from many generation processes and offers higher electrical
energy generation eciency compared to conventional steam cycle
systems. This ammoniawater cycle is successful for many waste
heat and renewable energy applications [1]. A typical food industry needs heating, cooling and refrigeration facilities for products,
with drying facility for raw materials and nished goods. The conventional cooling, heating and power generation systems are based

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 8973589273; fax: 044-2235 3637.

E-mail address: thermalsiva@gmail.com (R. Sivakumar).

on fossil fuels or electrical energy for their operation. The overall

source eciency of conventional power generation systems is really
low, which results in high cost of energy including transmission and
carbon losses [2].
Cogeneration is widely recognized as an alternative to conventional cooling, heating and power generation processes. Thermally
activated cogeneration systems favour better overall eciency as
compared to individual conventional systems [3,4]. Hence research activities were accelerated on combined cooling, heating and
power generation technologies. Among CCHP cycles, vapour absorption systems in cooling or heating modes demand strong
attention because these systems accept low and medium energy
sources for their operation of combined production of heating and
cooling [5]. A laboratory scale CCHP test plant, composed of a natural
gas red internal combustion engine generator whose waste heat
drives a double effect absorption heat pump and a liquid desiccant refrigeration unit with heat recovery unit, is reported to offer
maximum eciency of 7590% in combined cooling or heating with
power generation mode [6,7].

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.10.045
1359-4311/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: R. Sivakumar, A. Elayaperumal, R. Saravanan, Studies on combined cooling and drying of agro products using air cooled internal heat recovered
vapour absorption system, Applied Thermal Engineering (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.10.045

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In a similar approach, it is found that production of heat to use

for drying agricultural products and at the same time using the cold
for separate, effective, long term storage in controlled atmosphere
is possible using the vapour absorption system. It will provide considerable saving in overall energy than separate conventional drying
and cold storage systems [810]. Keeping the moisture content and
the storage temperature at low levels is the fundamental concept
to increase the lifespan of agricultural products. This is because with
higher moisture content at open atmosphere, possibilities for growth
of micro-organisms, molds and other degrading bacteria are high,
which reduces the lifespan of the products. In general, moisture
present in the hygroscopic products is removed (up to safe level)
by desorption operation in which hot air blown over the fresh wet
products desorbs the water from the product thereby increasing the
humidity of outlet air. However, in this drying operation a number
of key factors such as temperature, pressure, grain structure, moisture content, air relative humidity and air velocity are involved [11].
On the other hand, some of the dried and fresh commodities should
be stored at low temperature (10 C) in order to prevent bacteria/
fungus/other micro-organism growth. Cold storage for food
preservation also supports the need to maintain the nutritional value,
avour and texture of the food preserved. Several advanced techniques have been developed for cold storage and drying of
agricultural products individually to facilitate short drying time and
for limiting wastage. But these systems require investment and operational cost analysis to make it suitable for mass production to
meet human needs. In some of the advanced drying methods, undesirable chemical reactions were reported for heat sensitive agro
products. Similarly, microwave and infrared drying methods may
cause uneven heating and tissue damage if not properly operated.
The use of such advanced drying methods will be energy ecient
only for particular and selective drying needs determined by the
physio-chemical properties of a product [1214].
On the ipside, reports on hybrid systems such as heat pump
assisted convective dryer, microwave assisted uidized bed dryer,
chemical heat pump assisted and solar assisted heat pump dryers
demonstrated high quality dried products and higher drying rate
with energy cost savings with effective utilization of waste heat.
Jangam et al. [15] reviewed and highlighted possible strategies for
saving energy in drying operations and concluded that hybrid drying
or multistage drying reduced the energy consumption by 2050%
compared to conventional drying methods. The amount of energy
savings reported in hybrid or multistage drying systems by the previous study is given in Table 1. As discussed earlier, vapour absorption

Table 1
Hybrid energy ecient drying systems.
Hybrid/multi stage drying

Energy savings

Reference

Wood chip drying with an

absorption heat pump

1015% cost saving and 30%

higher in energy eciency
compared to conventional
dryer
Almost 10% higher thermal
eciency in all the cases and
810% higher drying
eciency than conventional
systems.
Higher thermal eciency
with increased optimum life
time and reduced energy cost.
Drying time of the material
reduced by four times
compared to natural drying.
20% improvement in thermal
eciency and 80% reduction
in fuel cost

[16]

Combine microwaveconvective
drying; Combine microwave
vacuum drying; Solar drying
with heat pump.
Heat pump in drying systems
with waste heat recovery
Heat pump assisted mechanical
dryer
Longan drying using heat
recovery method, wood as fuel,
applying thermal insulation
and better temperature and
humidity control

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

systems are one of the promising techniques that can be adopted

for the development of needed heating and cooling applications.
But such studies on combining cooling and drying for agricultural
applications are limited.
Hence, the present work illustrates the possibility of simultaneous cooling and drying of agro products using modied air cooled
NH3H2O vapour absorption system. The chilled water produced by
the system is used for cold storage whereas the heat rejected in the
form of hot air by the system is utilized for low temperature drying
applications.
2. Experimental setup
The experimental setup consists of a modied generator absorber internal heat recovery air cooled vapour absorption cooling
system (AVAR) attached to a bin dryer unit, as shown in Fig. 1a.
The designed cooling capacity of the modied air cooled absorption system is 10.5 kW with ammoniawater as working pair.
The weak (ammonia rich) solution from the absorber is pumped to
the generator through four heat exchangers, namely high pressure heat exchanger (HPGAX), low pressure heat exchanger (LPGAX),
solution heat exchanger I (SX1) and solution heat exchanger II (SX2).
Here the weak solution is preheated by refrigerant vapour (in
HPGAX), heat of mixing (in LPGAX), strong solution (in SX1) and
ue gas (in SX2) respectively. With the concept of high pressure heat
exchanger, the refrigerant vapour is cooled and rectied and the need
for separate rectication column is eliminated. The refrigerant vapour
from the evaporator is partially mixed with the strong solution in
the low pressure heat exchanger (LPGAX) where the heat of mixing
is used to pre-heat the weak solution and hence the absorber load
is reduced. The other heat recovery components such as condensate pre-cooler and solution cooler help to improve the coecient
of performance of the system. The details of each component such
as material, type and heat transfer area are given in Table 2.
At the evaporator side, chilled water from the evaporator is circulated to an air cooler placed inside a cold storage room and hence
the room is maintained at a desired low temperature by controlling the chilled water ow rate. The pictorial view of the modied
air cooled absorption system with bin dryer is shown in Fig. 1b. The
positions of the major components indicating the relative temperature, pressure and mass fraction are shown in the Duhring plot
(Fig. 2). The weak solution circuit and the strong solution circuits
are represented by processes 17 and processes 813 respectively, whereas processes 1424 indicate the refrigeration circuit. The
strong solution concentration increases in LPGAX by partial mixing
of refrigerant vapour as indicated in processes 1213.
In the heating side, the heat rejected by exothermic reactions
at the air cooled condenserabsorber unit (CAU) is utilized for
heating air to use in drying applications of bin dryer attached to

Table 2
Heat transfer area of individual components.
S. No.

Component

Material

Conguration

Heat transfer
area (m2)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Absorber
Condenser
Evaporator
Generator
HPGAX
LPGAX
Condensate pre cooler
Solution heat exchanger I
Solution heat exchanger II
Solution cooler
Bin dryer

Mild steel
Mild steel
Mild steel
Mild steel
Mild steel
Mild steel
Mild steel
Mild steel
Mild steel
Mild steel
Stainless
steel

Finned tube
Finned tube
Shell and coil
Direct red
Shell and tube
Shell and tube
Shell and tube
Tube and tube
Tube and tube
Shell and tube
Cross ow
circular bin

0.89
0.72
5.77
1
2.98
0.54
4.55
0.68
0.1
0.24
0.18

Please cite this article in press as: R. Sivakumar, A. Elayaperumal, R. Saravanan, Studies on combined cooling and drying of agro products using air cooled internal heat recovered
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Fig. 1. (a) Schematic diagram of air cooled vapour absorption system with attached bin dryer. (b) Pictorial view of air cooled vapour absorption system assisted bin dryer.

CAU. The internal heat recovery heat exchangers of the absorption

system such as SX1, SX2 and SC reduced the heat input to the generator and heated by-product air eliminated the need for other
sources of heat for drying.
Bin dryer with low temperature heat is very effective for drying
of heat sensitive agro products. The heat carried away from the
condenserabsorber unit (CAU) of the AVAR system is supplied to
the bin dryer through the central column wire mesh axially and it
passes radially over the commodity to be dried. The bin dryer needs
only partial volume ow rate of air (650700 m3/hr) because the
volume ow rate of hot air from CAU is very high (7000 m3/hr). The
pressure drop created by the corrugated type outer wall of the bin

dryer ensures maximum contact time between the product and hot
air stream.
Calibrated RTD temperature sensors are located in the duct adjoining the blower discharge, for the purpose of measuring the inlet
temperature of hot air. The relative humidity of the ambient air is
calculated from the measured wet and dry bulb temperatures
using two mercury thermometers of sensitivity 0.5 C, one is covered
with a wet cloth. The velocity of air at inlet is measured with the
help of vane type anemometer having 0.01 m/s accuracy. Two
digital electronic balances of 500 g and 020 kg capacity having accuracy of 0.01 g and 0.5 kg respectively are used to weigh the
samples. Halogen moisture analyser is used to examine the

Please cite this article in press as: R. Sivakumar, A. Elayaperumal, R. Saravanan, Studies on combined cooling and drying of agro products using air cooled internal heat recovered
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characteristics of the samples at 43 C, 48 C and 53 C are studied

in the bin dryer with AVAR supplying chilled water and hot air to
drying system simultaneously. The moisture content of the sago
sample at each interval is measured by halogen moisture analyser
METTLER TOLEDO-HE53 model with a standard deviation of 0.008.
The drying curve plot is developed at different drying temperatures by monitoring the moisture content variation with time.
3.1. Thermodynamic analysis of bin dryer

Fig. 2. PTX diagram of the modied system.

initial moisture content and moisture reduction during the drying

process.
3. Material and model

Hot air from the condenserabsorber unit with initial conditions of m1, RH1, t1, ha1 is passed through the dryer where it absorbs
certain moisture (w) from the wet product and comes out from the
dryer with nal conditions of m1, RH2, t2 and ha2. The amount of
moisture removed from the material depends on temperature and
relative humidity of hot air as well as the physical properties of the
material. For higher temperature needs, the hot air from the VARS
is heated further in the air heater (m1, RH1, t1 and ha1) before
passing through the bin dryer, as shown in Fig. 3. The heater is
switched on only when the required drying temperature is greater
than the temperature of air coming out of the condenserabsorber
unit. But in the present experiment only nal air temperature condition rejected at CAU is utilized for the drying process.
Since the drying process involves simultaneous heat and mass
transfer, the material balance can be written as,

m 1 RH 1 + G X 1 = m 1 RH 2 + G X 2

Good quality sago (6 mm avg. diameter) is purchased from a sago

mill and used for the drying experiment. The average initial moisture content of the wet sago sample is about 65 1% (on a wet weight
basis) as determined by drying in an electric oven at 105 C for 8
hours.
First, the condenserabsorber fan is switched on followed by the
diesel burner which supplies heat to the generator. The weak solution pump enables ammonia rich solution ow to the generator
from absorber. Generated ammonia vapour is condensed and stored
in the ammonia receiver tank. The evaporator and condenser temperatures are maintained by adjusting the refrigerant ow rate
through the refrigerant expansion valve. Absorber temperature is
maintained at a steady state by regulating the strong solution ow
through the pressure reducing valve. By regulating the strong solution ow rate, refrigerant ow rate followed by gradual increase
in heat input to the generator, the system is stabilized under steady
state condition which is ensured by three successive temperature
readings of the components. It is observed that absorber and condenser temperature increases gradually and stabilizes after 22.5
hours from start up. Hence the temperature of hot air from CAU also
reaches steady state after 22.5 hours from start up. The individual component temperature, pressure, solution ow rate and
refrigerant ow rate are measured periodically. The bin dryer air
ow is maintained in empty condition for 1 hour to reach steady
state condition before actual material drying test is started.
Wet sago sample of known quantity is fed into the dryer and the
moisture content variation is measured in ten minute intervals until
it reaches the safe moisture level (10% for sago). The drying

(1)

And the energy balance across the dryer and the heater is given
by,

Q d = m 1 (ha1 ha2 ) + G (h2 h1 ) + Q l

(2)

m 1 RH 1 + Q h = m 1 RH 1 + Q lh

(3)

Normally the heat loss in the heater (Qlh) is negligible. The thin
layer drying model describing the drying process by considering internal resistance to moisture transfer is given as,

M
= D 2M
t

(4)

3.2. Thermodynamic analysis of VARS

The following assumptions were made for the analysis of air
cooled VARS:
1. The system operates under steady state condition.
2. Weak solution leaving the absorber and strong solution leaving
the generator are saturated.
3. The refrigerant leaving the condenser and evaporator is saturated.
4. The concentration of refrigerant leaving HPGAX is 0.999.
5. Pump work is neglected.
The pressures in the evaporator and in the condenser are determined from the property data equation from the binary mixture

Fig. 3. Drying system model.

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where MRei is the ith experimental moisture ratio, MRpi is the ith
predicted moisture ratio, N is the number of observations, and z is
the number of constants in the model.

Table 3
Mass and energy balance for major components of VARS.
S. No.

Component

Energy balance

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Absorber
Condenser
Generator
Evaporator
HPGAX
LPGAX
CPC
Combined COP

Q a = m 13h13 + m 25h25 m 1h1

m 1X 1 = m 13X 13 + m 25X 25
Q c = m 18 (h18 h19 )
m 18 = m 19
Q g = m 8h8 + m 14h14 m 15h15
m 15 = m 14 + m 8
Q e = m 22 (h22 h21 )
m 21 = m 22
Q HPGAX = m 2 (h3 h2 )
m 16 X 16 = m 17 X 17 + m 18 X 18
Q LPGAX = m 3 (h 4 h3 )
m 13X 13 = m 12X 12 + m 24 X 24
Q CPC = m 19 (h19 h20 )
m 19 = m 20 = m 21 = m 22
COPc = Qe + (Q a + Q c ) (Qg + W p + W f + W b )

Mass balance

4. Results and discussion

Variation of the VARS components temperature with respect to different sink temperatures is shown in Fig. 4. The average ambient
temperature varies from 27 C, 31 C to 35 C in winter, standard and
summer seasons respectively (based on Chennai location during experimentation). The temperature of cooling air after absorbing the heat
of absorption and condensation is reached up to maximum of 53 C
during the operation of the system. It is observed that the generator
temperature increases steadily in all the cases and it stabilizes after
reaching temperatures of about 135 C, 140 C and 150 C during the
variation of ambient temperature. The variation of the absorber and
condenser temperatures with respect to sink temperature also follows
such increasing pattern similar to that of the generator. Due to the uctuation in the rate of absorption and condensation in the system,
unsteadiness in the heat rejection is more over a period of time and
hence average value of temperature is taken for calculations. The absorber temperature is always higher than the condenser temperature
in all the cases due to the large amount of heat of mixing during the
absorption process. The outlet air temperature is maximum at higher
generator temperature when the mass ow rate of the weak solution
is kept constant. The evaporator temperature decreases with time initially and then it becomes stable by extracting constant cooling effect.
Typical operating conditions of modied air cooled absorption system
are shown in Table 4.

of ammoniawater solution. The concentrations of weak solution

leaving the absorber and the strong solution leaving the generator
are obtained from the PTX relation of the ammoniawater
solution.
With respect to Fig. 1a, the weak solution mass balance can be
written as,

m 1 = m 2 = m 3 = m 4 = m 5 = m 6 and

m 7 = m 6 + m 14 m 16

(5)

Similarly, the refrigerant mass balance (Fig. 1a) is written as,

m 18 = m 19 = m 20 = m 21 = m 22 = m 23 and

m 16 = m 17 + m 18

(6)

The mass and energy balance for the individual components of

air cooled VARS system and combined COP with respect to the state
points represented in Fig. 1a are shown in Table 3.
The above mass and energy balance equations are obtained
to nd COP of the system by giving achieved input values such
as absorber, evaporator, generator and condenser temperatures; cooling capacity and effectiveness of the solution heat
exchangers.

160
Absorber
140

Component temperature (C)

3.3. Drying models

Non-linear regression analysis is performed using MATLAB in
order to t the experimental data to fourteen selected mathematical models, as shown in Table 4. The coecient of determination
2
(R2), reduced chi-square ( ), and root mean square error (RMSE)
are the primary criteria to evaluate the t quality of these models.
2
The lower the and RMSE, the higher the R2 resulting in the best
mathematical model for drying characteristics. These statistical parameters are dened as follows,

Condensor
Evaporator

120

Generator
CAU air outlet

100
80
60
40
20

N
2
= (MRei MR pi ) N z
i =1

(7)

0
T=27

T=31

T=35

Sink Temperature (C)

(1 2)

2
RMSE = 1 N (MRei MR pi )

i =1

(8)
Fig. 4. Variation of major component temperature after steady state.

Table 4
Typical operating condition of the system with respect to Fig. 1a.
S. No.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Component

Absorber
Condenser
Evaporator
Generator
HPGAX
LPGAX
Condensate pre cooler
Solution heat exchanger I
Solution heat exchanger II
Solution cooler

Temperature (C)

51
46
5
145
57.5
62.9
40.7
101.2
108.7
114

Pressure (bar)

2.9
18.3
2.9
18.3
18.3
2.9
18.3
18.3
18.3
18.3

UA (W/m2 K)

Mass fraction
WS

SS

Ref

0.33

0.33
0.33
0.33

0.33
0.33
0.33

0.234

0.234

0.234

0.194
0.194
0.234

0.999
0.999
0.945
0.999

0.999

1.17
0.91
0.25
0.59
0.11
0.40
0.39
0.32
0.22
0.24

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a 80

20

HPHAX-ws
LPGAX - ws

Heat Recovered

14

LPGAX - rv

50

Heat Rejected

16

LPGAX - ss

Heat Load (kW)

Temperature (C)

60

Heat Supplied

18

HPGAX - rv

70

40
30

12
10
8
6

20

10

0
T=31

T=35

T=27

SInk Temperature (C)

b 50

SX1 - ws
SX1 - ss
SX2 - ws
SX2 - ss
SC - ws
SC - ss

45

Temperature (C)

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
T=27

T=31

T=31

T=35

Sink Temperature (C)

T=35

Sink Temperature (C)

Fig. 5. (a) Temperature difference across HPGAX and LPGAX after steady state. (b)
Temperature difference across SX1, SX2 and SC after steady state.

Fig. 5a and b shows the effect of sink temperature on the temperature difference across the heat recovery components HPGAX and
LPGAX. The temperature difference across the HPGAX and LPGAX
refrigerant side (rv) is much greater than the weak solution (ws)
side because of rectication and partial absorption processes respectively. Similarly, the solution heat exchanger 1 contributes around
5560% heat recovery from the strong solution side (ss) whereas
the other heat exchangers also signicantly recover the heat rejected to reduce the total heat input.
The supplied heat load decides the generator and evaporator heat
duty whereas heat rejected is collected in the condenser and absorber as heat duty. The recovered heat load infers the amount of
heat recovered in the high pressure heat exchanger, low pressure
heat exchanger, solution heat exchanger 1 and solution heat exchanger 2. At constant weak solution ow rate, as sink temperature
increases the quantity of refrigerant absorbed decreases with concentration of weak solution reduction. Thus the less concentrated
weak solution simultaneously decreases the amount of refrigerant vapour produced. Due to the decrease in the refrigerant ow
rate, the condenser and evaporator loads also decreased. However,
as the sink temperature increases, due to large temperature difference across the internal heat recovery components, the amount of
heat recovered increases. But the heat losses in the individual components and pipelines are not included However, our observation
is, such variation is minimum during experiment with varying
ambient temperatures. The amount of heat supplied, rejected and
recovered heat duties at various sink temperatures are condensed
in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6. Effect of sink temperature on heat duty.

For drying experiments, external heat rejected at the outlet of

condenser and absorber enables the operation of the dryer between
43 and 53 C. The drying characteristics of the sago samples are
shown in Figs. 7 and 8. The moisture content of sago is reduced from
65% (wet basis) to 10% (wet basis) in 140 minutes for 43 C supply,
whereas the same reduction in moisture content is achieved in 90
and 80 minutes with supply of 48 C and 53 C respectively. Drying
rate is found to be higher at higher moisture content and decreased with decreasing moisture content due to the quantity of
reduction in the free bulk moisture content by constant rate period.
Based on the results obtained, it is concluded that temperature
change makes signicant contribution on the drying rate of these
samples until it reaches critical moisture content. Since sago is soft
and heat sensitive by nature, it must be dried at low or medium
temperature with little elevated velocity in order to avoid physical damage. However, drying at a temperature of 53 C shows
improved drying time with acceptable quality of sago without any
colour change. The quality of the dried product is estimated by simple
visual and oral tests recommended by SabuIndia [21] (in the 2011
revised edition) developed as per the taste of Indian consumers. Examining individual quality parameters and addition of corresponding
points (out of 100) represents the quality of the dried sago. If the
total points are a high gure, it is categorized as higher quality (>95).
Samples obtained by bin drying process are categorized as second

0.6
43C
48C

0.5

53C
0.4

0.3

0.2

Drying Rate (kg/kg d.m)/min

T=27

0.1

0
1.6

1.4

1.2

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

Moisture Content (kg/kg d.m)

Fig. 7. Drying rate curve.

Please cite this article in press as: R. Sivakumar, A. Elayaperumal, R. Saravanan, Studies on combined cooling and drying of agro products using air cooled internal heat recovered
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quality sago, classied in the business grade by the name of milk

white and special grade having total points in the range of 7785.
The drying eciency of the system is dened as,

(T1 T 2 )
(T1 Ta )

(9)

where T1 is the inlet (high) air temperature into the dryer, T2 is the
outlet air temperature from the dryer, and Ta is the ambient air temperature. The numerator, the gap between T1 and T2, is a major factor
in the eciency [22].
The energy utilization ratio (EUR) for the drying process is dened
as the ratio of heat utilized during the humidication process at the
drying chamber to the total useful heat supplied in the form of convection heat and by the conduction heat. The energy utilization ratio
is expressed as,

EUR =

m da (ha1 ha 2 )
Q air + Q p

(10)
Fig. 9. Effect of sink temperature on cooling and combined COP.

The convection heat loss for air Qair and the conduction heat gain
for product QP in the chamber are given as below:

Q air = m daC Pda (t a 2 t a1 )

(11)

Q p = K p A p (dt dx p )

(12)

where h is the enthalpy of drying air given by,

ha = C pdaT + vhasat @t

(13)

This energy utilization ratio of the drying process varies from

49.4 to 20.86% as the drying time increases, as shown in Fig. 8. Initially the EUR is high (about 45%) for all the cases, then it reduced
to approximately 20% in the falling rate period. Near the end of the
drying process the EUR stabilizes even at high temperature due to
the resistance to remove bound moisture content. At 53 C, the EUR
is not as high as expected because of the additional supply of heat
by the external air heater, although maximum EUR of 24.8% is
achieved at the drying temperature of 53 C during the initial stage
of the drying process. The EUR is estimated based on the moisture
content of the dried sago product. It is found that the EUR of
unshelled pistachios dried in the tray dryer showed results of 50%
higher EUR than shelled pistachios under same drying conditions
and this shows that the EUR is based on the structure and the moisture content of the products in the falling rate period [23,24].

At a constant evaporator temperature, as the sink temperature

increases, the cooling, heating and combined COP of the cycle decreases due to an increase in the heat at rejection component load
and generator heat input. However, the performance of the cycle
improves when the evaporator temperature is increased from 0 C
to 5 C due to reduction in the heat rejection component load and
generator heat input. The cooling and combined COP reached a
maximum of 0.7 and 1.8 respectively for the analysed conditions
(Fig. 9). Similarly the recovered heat load is smaller at minimum
sink temperature whereas appreciable heat is recovered at higher
sink temperatures. This is because at higher sink temperature, the
temperature gradient across the heat recovery components is very
high and thus more heat can be recovered. Overall, almost 6070%
of the heat is recovered from the rejected heat load by internal heat
recovery components such as SX1, SX2, HPGAX, LPGAX and SC. The
cold storage room is maintained in the temperature range of 810 C
which is recommended for most cold storage systems for grains.
Based on the curve tting, it is observed that the Midilli et al.
[25] model shows good t with the experimental results than the
other models shown in Table 5. For the Midilli et al. model the R2,
2 and RMSE values are 0.9934, 0.0708 and 0.0124 respectively
and the model t with the experimental data is shown in Fig. 10.
The uncertainties in experimental results are calculated based
on the accuracy of the appropriate instruments used to measure
individual independent variables. The uncertainty in the total quantity (WR) containing Xn independent variable is given as,

Table 5
Mathematical drying models.
S. No. Equation model

Fig. 8. Moisture reduction and EUR.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

MR = exp(kt)
MR = exp(ktn)
MR = a exp(kt)
MR = a exp(kt) + c
MR = a exp(k0t) + b exp(k1t)
MR = 1 + at + bt2
MR = a + bt2 + ct
MR = a exp(ktn) + bt
ln(ln MR) = a + b ln t + c(ln t)2
MR = exp[(kt)n]
MR = exp[(kt)n]
MR = a exp(ktn) + c exp(gtn)
MR = a exp(k1t) + b exp(k2t) + c exp(k3t)

14

MR = exp at b t

Model name

Ref

Newton
Page
Henderson and Pabis
Logarithmic
Two-term
Wang and Singh
Eref Iik et al.
Midilli and Kucuk
Diamante et al.
Modied Page I
Modied Page II
New model
Modied Henderson
and Pabis
Silva et al.

[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[25]
[33]
[34]
[34]
[35]
[36]
[37]

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conventional sun drying. The energy utilization ratio of the drying

process varied from 49.4 to 20.86%, but at the end of the drying
process, the increase in drying temperature did not show any noteworthy changes. Comparing the determination of coecient, reduced
chi-square and root mean square error values of the fourteen models,
it is concluded that the Midilli et al. [25] model follows the experimental results more closely than other models.

0.7

Predicted moisture ratio

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3

Acknowledgements

0.2

The authors would like to thank UGC (F.1-9/2002 (NS)), Government of India, New Delhi, for providing nancial assistance for
the project.

0.1
0
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Experimantal moisture ratio

Fig. 10. Experimental and predicted values using the Midilli et al. [25] model.

Table 6
Uncertainties in measured/estimated parameter.
S. No.

Parameter

Uncertainty

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Temperature
Pressure
Solution ow rate and density
Refrigerant ow rate and density
Solution concentration
Circulation ratio
Generator heat load
Evaporator heat load
Absorber heat load
Condenser heat load
COP
Weight
Moisture loss
Moisture ratio

0.5 C
0.20%
0.20%
0.15%
1.02%
0.25%
1.06%
5.26%
1.86%
1.61%
5.36%
0.5 kg
3.07%
4.34%

WR =

(W1 )2 + (W 2 )2 + (W 3 )2 + + (W n )2

(14)

where W = X X ; X is the error in X.

In the present study the independent parameters such as temperature, velocity, humidity, weight, pressure and solution ow rate
are measured with appropriate instruments having manufacturer
specied accuracy range. Based on the accuracy range and minimum
value of quantity measured, maximum uncertainty associated with
the parameters are calculated. Finally the total uncertainty associated with the COP and moisture ratio is calculated considering all
the parameters. The details of uncertainties in measured and estimated parameters are shown in Table 6.
5. Conclusions
An air cooled ammoniawater vapour absorption refrigeration
system using internal heat recovery components is analysed for both
cooling and heating modes. The cooling and combined COP of the
system varies from 0.60 to 0.70 and from 1.10 to 1.80 respectively,
when the evaporator temperature is increased from 0 C to 5 C. The
temperature of the hot air rejected at the outlet of the condenser
absorber unit is about 4353 C which is further by external means
used for drying applications. The results indicate that compared to
conventional VARS systems, the proposed unit has 2035% higher
COP at required operating conditions for combined heating and
cooling applications. Drying of sago at temperatures of 48 C and
53 C exhibits better drying characteristics with very minimal drying
time compared to one complete days sunshine hours observed in

Nomenclature
Ap
Cp
G
h
ha
m
K
RH
T
t
v
w
X
HXE
W p , W f and Wb

Hear transfer area of the product [m2]

Specic heat [kJ/kg K]
Mass ow of dry solids [kg/s]
Product enthalpy [kJ/kg]
Air enthalpy [kJ/kg]
Mass ow rate [kg/s]
Conduction coecient [W/m K]
Relative humidity [%]
Product temperature [C]
Air temperature [C]
Specic humidity [g/g]
Mass rate of water vapourization [kg/s]
Moisture content [kg water/kg dry solids]
Heat exchanger
Pump, fan and blower work

Subscripts
0
Atmosphere
1
Inlet
2
Outlet
d
Dryer
da
Dry air
h
Heater
l
Loss
p
Product
sat@t
Saturated condition at given temperature
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vapour absorption system, Applied Thermal Engineering (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.10.045

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Please cite this article in press as: R. Sivakumar, A. Elayaperumal, R. Saravanan, Studies on combined cooling and drying of agro products using air cooled internal heat recovered
vapour absorption system, Applied Thermal Engineering (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.10.045