Feasibility study of a heat pump assisted flower bulb drying system

Feasibility study of a heat pump assisted flower bulb drying system: An opportunity to bring sustainable energy solutions to the agriculture sector

Wagenaar, Sjors (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)

Infante Ferreira, C.A. (mentor)
Vlugt, T.J.H. (graduation committee)
Delfos, R. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Mechanical Engineering | Process and Energy Technology

2019-06-28

In some countries, drying processes use up to 20% of the total energy consumption. Within the agriculture sector, drying of food and flowering products is a necessary step in production. A lot of companies make use of hot air dryers where the heat is gained by burning natural gas. A novel method is to use a heat pump assisted drying systems instead. Heat pump assisted drying realises a better product quality due to the ability of humidity and climate control of the drying medium: air. Additionally, there are possibilities for energy savings up to 50%. This thesis project is mentioned as the first step for an initiative to introduce heat pump drying into the horticulture sector. The project started almost 1 year ago and is still far from finished. Main goal was to get a good understanding of the product drying behaviour, drying capacities and the system requirements and footprints. Conclusions should determine whether there is a possibil-ity for market implementation or not. The results in this report are promising. Heat pump drying is a trending research topic in science, where new developments on predicting the dynamic drying behaviour of agricultural products show up every month. This study involves a computational model, where the dynamic process of drying flower bulbs is simulated. This model is validated by measurements on existing drying in-stallations. Building this model resulted in a good understanding about the flower bulb characteris-tics and the necessary drying capacities. Additionally, Heat pump drying systems are evaluated and a dynamically modelled. When both models are the drying process of FB’s can be optimized. The first protype of the HP drying system that will be used in further research will be shortly discussed. Conclusion of this report is that heat pump drying is a promising technique for drying of FB’s. The combination of technical advantages with energy savings, could lead to better product quality and lower production costs. The business case is strengthened by future perspectives where energy efficiency and reduction of CO2 emissions will more and more important due to climate change.

Drying
Agriculture
Heat pump
Modelling

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:03321a05-79a0-4ea2-8bfb-9a15bd15151f

2021-06-28

Student theses

master thesis

© 2019 Sjors Wagenaar