DYNAMIC DRYING CHARACTERISTICS OF ALFALFA UNDER SOLAR ENERGY-HEAT PUMP COMBINED DRYING CONDITIONS

Abstract

To promote the application of solar energy-heat pump combined drying technology in forage processing and enhance the drying efficiency of alfalfa, an experimental study was conducted. The research utilized a solar energy-heat pump drying system and a mesh belt dynamic drying device to investigate the drying characteristics of alfalfa. Drying characteristic curves were obtained, and the drying model and parameters were determined through model comparison. The study also analysed the impact of factors such as hot air velocity, temperature, alfalfa stacking thickness, turning angle of the spinner rack, and conveyor belt speed on the drying characteristic curves and parameters of alfalfa. A predictive model for alfalfa moisture content was developed, and the effective moisture diffusivity and activation energy were calculated. The findings revealed that alfalfa does not exhibit a constant speed drying stage, and its drying primarily occurs during the deceleration drying stage. The Logarithmic model was found to accurately describe the moisture change pattern during the dynamic drying process of alfalfa, with a model fitting coefficient R^2 exceeding 0.994, with an effective moisture diffusivity ranging from 2.776×10-10 m2/s to 4.7324×10-9 m2/s, and an activation energy of 37.02 kJ/mol. The study suggests that increasing the hot air velocity and temperature, reducing the conveyor belt speed, and adjusting the alfalfa stacking thickness can further enhance the drying rate and reduce the drying time.