Design and experimental analysis of grape pomace drying system

Grape is a substance obtained as a result of agricultural activity and is commonly consumed in the form of pulp by pressing it in fruit juice, molasses and wine production facilities.The waste grape pomace is a resource that can be used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and feed industries with the antioxidants, phenolic compounds, proteins and oils it contains. It is appropriate to dry the grape pomace in order to extendits shelf life and to separate the skin and seed parts. It is important to use environmentally friendly, economical and energy efficient systems in bringing a waste product to the economy. In this study, drying experiments were carried out by designing a drying system with air solar collector. Fins were added to the solar collector absorber plate in order to obtain maximum efficiency from the system. Experimental studies were conducted with 1,5; 2 and 2,5 m/s inlet air velocities to the drying chamber. Moisture content of the grape pomace has initially been determined to be %55 relative to the wet base and was reduced to %5 at the end of the experiments. Grape pomace was dried in the solar air collector at 1,5 m/s air velocity for 200 minutes, 2 m/s air velocity for 220 minutes and 2,5 m/s air velocity for 400 minutes with this design. According to the results, the average thermal energy efficiencies of the solar air collector have beencalculated as %42, %51, %47 in the air velocities of 1,5; 2 and 2,5 m/s, respectively. With this study, it has been seen that grape pulp can be dried successfully with the designed solar drying system