Solar application for Drying Woodchip in Scotland.

A novel solar dryer for drying woodchip has been developed in Scotland. In this paper, designs and performance of both solar collector and dryer have been presented separately. Woodchip drying performance has been analysed for a range of temperatures (10ºC to 51ºC) and flow rates (70m³/h to 280m³/h). Page model has been used for modelling the drying curves as a function of temperatures and drying velocities.The thermal solar system considered consisted of a solar collector based on the transpired plate type and a small 10We PV panel unit employed to run a 5We fan. The performance of the system is presented in terms of air flow rate and temperature increments as a function of irradiance levels.Keywords: Solar air heating, solar dryer, woodchi