Textile drying using solarized can dryers to demonstrate the application of solar energy to industrial drying or dehydration processes, Phase II. Final report

This program has resulted in the installation of a solar energy collection system for providing process heat to a textile drying process. The solar collection subsystem uses 700 square meters (7500 square feet) of parabolic trough, single-axis tracking, concentrating collectors to heat water in a high temperature water (HTW) loop. The solar collectors nominally generate 193/sup 0/C (380/sup 0/F) water with the HTW loop at 1.9 x 10/sup 6/ Pa (275 psi). A steam generator is fueled with the HTW and produces 450 kg/hour (1000 pounds per hour) of process steam at the nominal design point conditions. The solar-generated process steam is at 0.5 x 10/sup 6/ Pa (75 psi) and 160/sup 0/C (321/sup 0/F). It is predicted that the solar energy system will provide 1.2 x 10/sup 6/ MJ/year (1.1 x 10/sup 9/ Btu/year) to the process. This is 46 percent of the direct isolation available to the collector field during the operational hours (300 days/year of the Fairfax mill. The process being solarized is textile drying using can dryers. The can dryers are part of a slashing operation in a WestPoint Pepperell mill in Fairfax, Alabama. Over 50 percent of all woven goods are processed through slashers and dried on can dryers. The collectors were fabricated by Honeywell at a pilot production facility in Minneapolis, Minnesota, under a 3000-square-meter (32,000-square-foot) production run. The collectors and other system components were installed at the site by the Bahnson Service Company and their subcontractors, acting as the project general contractor. System checkout and start-up was conducted. Preliminary system performance was determined from data collected during start-up. System design, fabrication and installation, data analysis, operation and maintenance procedures, and specifications and drawings are presented