Dynamic Modeling and Analysis of Solar Industrial Process Heating (SIPH) for the Food industry

Abstract

Thermal energy requirements in the industrial sector for different process heating applications consume about 35% of the total global fossil fuels. To mitigate the consumption of fossil fuels, solar industrial process heating (SIPH) can be the best possible option. Therefore, in this paper, dynamic simulation and performance analysis of the SIPH system have been carried out for the food industry. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of mass flow rate on the outlet temperature of solar thermal collectors by multi-flat plate collectors (m-FPC) industrial process requirements. The methodology has considered data for the food industry of Pakistan to verify its potential quantitatively for different weather conditions (Summer and winter). The investigation revealed that once the desired temperature (T_set) of 60°C was attained at the optimized mass flow rate of 41 kg/s, any additional upsurge in flow rate led to greater energy consumption by the auxiliary heating system. Additionally, the analysis confirmed that the annual thermal energy generated by the solar collector, in conjunction with the supplementary heat provided by the heater, adequately fulfills the process requirements. These findings demonstrate the promising potential of SIPH within the food industry.