Experimental performance analysis of infrared assisted solar air heater for continuous applications of drying

Photovoltaic thermal-assisted solar infrared dryer and a battery-operated drying system for agricultural products were created in experimental research to lessen the demand for fossil fuels. The drying cabinet’s sustainability index and energy efficiency were calculated in the experiments carried out at flow rates of 0.022 and 0.062 kg/s. As a result, the Improvement Potential (IP) index values for the two studies were calculated to be 2.42 and 1.19, respectively. These numbers are 2.38 and 4.06 for Sustainable Index (SI); 0.47 and 0.27 were derived for Waste Exergy Ratio (WER). In the two experiments, the average drying cabinet exergy was found to be 0.55 and 0.71, respectively. Likewise, it was found that the drying time is influenced by the flow rate; the drying times in the two experiments were 310 and 280 min, respectively. Additionally, it was determined that for the two experiments, the thermal efficiency of the photovoltaic thermal collector was 33.11% and 55.07%, its electrical efficiency was 11.65% and 12.38%, and its exergy efficiency was 0.85 and 1.15, respectively.