Solar drying phosphates using flat plate collector or a cylindro-parabolic concentrator

Abstract

Our work consists of modeling and simulating a solar dryer for phosphate drying within the Company of Phosphate Gafsa (CPG) to reduce the energy bill of the fuel. This dryer is composed of a tunnel connected to a hot air production unit. Two types of solar generators have been studied: the first is an air flat plate collector and the other is a cylindro-parabolic concentrator. By carrying out mass and energy balances, we have established two theoretical models describing the functioning of the two systems. The simulation on MATLAB allowed us to determine the different temperature levels of different components and the moisture levels of the phosphates eliminated by the solar energy in each installation. The results obtained show that the use of a solar concentration system makes it possible to better conduct the phosphates drying since it has decreased its moisture content from 18% to about 2% while the plane collector reduces it only by 2.5% for the same quantity of 50 kg.