ENERGY AND EXERGY ANALYSES ON DRYING OF OLIVE LEAVES (OLEA EUROPAEA L.) IN TRAY DRIER

WOS: 000297947600016Recently, olive leaves have a high potential for industrial exploitation in the food industry. The main process in olive leaf treatment is drying. Because drying is an energy-intensive process, analyzing and improving the drying systems is important. In this study, olive leaves were dried in a tray drier and the performance of the drying process was evaluated using energy and exergy analyses methods. The effects of the drying air temperature and the velocity on the performance of the drying process were discussed. While the energy utilization ratio values varied between 14.05% and 26.21%, the exergetic efficiencies varied between 55.95% and 75.12%. It was inferred that exergetic efficiencies increased as the drying air temperature decreased and the drying air velocity increased. They were influenced mainly by the drying air temperature.Ege UniversityEge University [2007/MUH/30]This study is a part of the MSc thesis entitled "The investigation of modeling, optimization, and exergetic analysis of drying of olive leaves," and is supported by Ege University Scientific Research Project no. of 2007/MUH/30