Latent-dry: Solar drying with latent heat storage in Python, Fortran and TRNSYS

Abstract

Solar drying of agricultural products has been researched and practiced for several decades, especially in tropical and subtropical regions with and without energy storage. However, tests of such dryers have almost invariably been done as fixed-size units and under the local weather conditions, since doing otherwise is costly and impractical. Here we present the computer programs necessary to calculate the performance a solar air heater, a latent heat storage unit and a fixed bed dryer, which can be used independently or together to simulate a solar dryer with or without energy storage. The models are relatively detailed but easy to use and versions of them are available in Python 3, Fortran 90 and as TRNSYS Types.