Sizing and Design of the PV-WIND Energy Dryer for Medical Herbs

Copyright © 2013 Emad Ahmed Sweelem et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Medical herbs are located in Egypt in different areas and they are very important to increase the national income of Egypt. It is necessary to dry the herbs in their growing locations. As the growing locations are located far from the natural supply grid of Egypt, renewable energy sources such as PV&WIND are preferably utilized to achieve the drying process. Moreover, since the drying process is actually used to remove water from the herbs, thus it can preserve the herbs in storage drastically by preventing the attack of microorganisms during the moist conditions of herbs and also reduce their weight and bulk (for cheaper transport). Where, this paper selects, at first, the suitable drying site, and then it suggests. The suggested drying system is completely designed, and includes the following three systems: the solar thermal system, the dryer, and the renewable energy system