Abstract:
Recently the influence of the huge increase in energy cost has had an impact on the
Manufacturing or transformation process where drying is implemented. Herbal and
medicinal plants dehydration is among these applications.
Medicinal plants are a massive holder of multiple active components, and essential
oils, which are principally used in pharmaceutical production, perfumery... etc.
In the present study, experiments besides a simulation have been carried out for
analysing well the Myrtus Communis leaves dehydration procedure.
Drying kinetics for the Myrtus Communis leaves has been pointed out in an indirect
solar dryer in Constantine area, (Algeria), and sorption isotherms experiments have
been defined in a laboratory using the static gravimetric method. These valuable
experimental data have been used in the numerical simulation in order to proximate
the modelling to the real phenomena.
Numerical simulation has been carried out using the finite element method by the use
of the closed source package Comsol Multiphysics.
Predict airflow distribution inside a solar dryer helps in avoiding microbial growth and
contamination, as well as optimizing dryers design.
