Exergoeconomic and environmental impact evaluation of wind energy assisted hybrid solar dryer and conventional solar dryer.

Exergoeconomic analysis is one of the basic methods that clearly reveal the energy cost analysis of a system. The analysis of environmental impact, on the other hand, is the based factor that detects energy payback time and CO 2 reduction according to the amount of energy contained in a system. In this study, a wind energy assisted hybrid solar dryer (WASD) was developed, tested in both simple conventional solar dryer (CSD) and WASD modes, and exergoeconomic and environmental impact assessments were examined for these two modes. While the required electrical energy for the WASD mode was obtained from the wind energy, on the other hand, the necessary electrical energy for the CSD mode was required from the grid electricity. According to the exergoeconomic analysis results, it was detected that the fan was the basic component that needed improvement in both situations. With respect to the environmental impact analysis, the energy payback periods for WASD and CSD modes were determined as 1.36 and 0.62 years, respectively. Moreover, the data obtained revealed that the WASD mode was approximately 50% more advantageous in terms of energy and drying efficiency compared to the CSD mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]