Design and Analysis of IOT-based Solar Dryer for Sustainable Farming

In this work, an indirect type solar dryer was developed using an Evacuated tube-based compound parabolic concentrator incorporated with PCM based latent heat thermal energy storage system. Without a tracking system, the absorber can collect direct and diffused ration by concentrating the solar radiation by assembling the two parabolas with compound rotation. The charging loop was built to maintain the proper heat collection from the solar collector. The heat transfer fluid pumped into the solar collector gains the heat by convection heat transfer mode. The heat transfer fluid flow inside the shell and tube Latent heat thermal energy storage system from the top transfer into the punch of tubes assembled parallel. Paraffin wax, due to its higher melting temperature and the latent heat of fusion, increases with an elongated hydrogen and carbon chain and is also a cost-effective, reliable, non-reactive material with self-nucleating properties. By implementing tubular encapsulation, direct contact between the PCM and the HTF is prevented, minimizing chemical reactions and enhancing PCM handling. Integrating a Thermal energy storage system into the solar dryer eliminates the fluctuation of solar radiation during non-sun shine hours, which helps prevent microbial growth. A power-full hard drive was developed especially for the energy-efficient loT application. It has many features like low power, being a cost-effective platform, being integrated into Wi-Fi, containing a dual-core processor and having many input/output pins called GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) to connect the sensor and control units. This system presented in this work assists in monitoring the system and controlling various vital parameters. This system would help small-scale farmers dry grains and monitor the system at a relatively cheaper cost.