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Effects of Component Arrangement and Ambient and

Drying Conditions on the Performance of Heat Pump
Dryers
a b c
P. Saensabai & S. Prasertsan
a
Joint Graduated School on Energy and Environment, King Mongkut University of Technology
Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand,
90112
Published online: 04 Sep 2006.
To cite this article: P. Saensabai & S. Prasertsan (2003): Effects of Component Arrangement and Ambient and Drying
Conditions on the Performance of Heat Pump Dryers, Drying Technology: An International Journal, 21:1, 103-127
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DRYING TECHNOLOGY
Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 103–127, 2003
Downloaded by [University of Saskatchewan Library] at 16:52 29 May 2013
Effects of Component Arrangement and Ambient

and Drying Conditions on the Performance of
Heat Pump Dryers
P. Saensabai1 and S. Prasertsan2,*

1
Joint Graduated School on Energy and Environment, King
Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prince of Songkla
University, Hat Yai, Thailand
ABSTRACT
Performances of five heat pump dryer (HPD) configurations were

studied by computer simulation. The component arrangement
covers the fully open, the partially open, and the fully closed systems
with external condenser or external cooler. The HPD performance
was investigated for high and low drying rate and within the ambient
temperature range of 20 C to 40 C. The best operating mode of the
HPD depends on both drying rate and ambient condition. For the
case of tropical climate and high drying rate, the partially open
system is the optimum operating mode in general, except at some
particular conditions where the fully open and fully closed systems
are recommended. However, the operation for the low drying rate is
*Correspondence: S. Prasertsan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prince

of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand 90112; E-mail: suteera@trf.or.th.
103
DOI: 10.1081/DRT-120017286 0737-3937 (Print); 1532-2300 (Online)

Copyright & 2003 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. www.dekker.com
104 Saensabai and Prasertsan
more complicated, as the optimum configuration is sensitive to the

change of ambient temperature.
Key Words: Heat pump dryer; Heat pump dryer simulation; Heat
pump dryer performance.
1. INTRODUCTION
A heat pump, when equipped with a dryer, is used to recover heat

from the waste stream of working air. As the coefficient of performance
(COP) can be as high as 4–5, it is considered as an economically viable
application.[1–3] However, to achieve the optimum operation of a heat
pump dryer (HPD), the system configuration must be changed according
to the changing property of the working air.[4] It was found that the
drying load or product drying rate, which affects the working air mois-
ture content, and ambient condition play an important role in the perfor-
mance of the system. Chua et al.,[5] reported that the heat pump drying
with stepwise air temperature variation according to the stage of product
drying yielded better quality product with a shorter drying time. Similar
principle was use by Alves-Filho and Strommen[6] as they combined
freeze drying with medium temperature drying in the HPD application.
Although HPD was studied extensively as reviewed by Prasertsan and
Saen-Saby,[7] no general rule for optimum operation (minimum energy
consumption or maximum drying rate) was concluded.
As reported by Prasertsan and Saen-Saby,[7] the HPD performance
was not well understood in many works. For example, some works
reported that the optimum performance of the HPD occurs when the
COP of the heat pump is at maximum. But some works revealed that
the maximum COP, drying rate and system efficiency did not necessarily
occurred at same working condition. Some researchers suggested that at
the early stage of drying, the closed configuration should be used, but
other workers concluded that the open configuration performed better.
It seems that there is no specific configuration for any single product, but
the operation must be changed with respect to the product drying rate
and ambient condition.[4,8,9] Practically, the HPD should be an open or
partially open system in order to stabilize the system (by shedding of the
energy from the system). This would accelerate the drying throughput
rate, but at the expense of low energy efficiency. Since previous studies
did not cover the effects of all factors involved, full understanding of the
HPD system performance cannot be drawn upon (or even produced
Performance of Heat Pump Dryers 105
contradictory conclusions in some cases). It was, therefore, suggested that

the understanding of system configuration is one of R&D needs in HPD
development.[7] Comparative studies on performances of various HPD
configurations were reported in this article.
2. HPD CONFIGURATIONS
The heat pump and the dryer can be assembled in various forms
depending on the manipulation of air and energy flow. Five HPD config-
urations as shown in Fig. 1(a–e) are investigated. The five configurations
are named, for short, as HPD-A, HPD-B, HPD-C, and so on. HPD-A,
Fig. 1(a), is the simplest configuration. It can be fully open or partially
open HPD depending on the recirculation of the working air. If the dryer
exhaust is partially vented out as shown in Fig. 1(b), the sensible heat load
of the evaporator is lessen. Consequently, more latent heat is removed,
which might result in lower humidity at the condenser inlet, and thus
enhances the drying capability of the working air. The rest three config-
urations are closed system. In order to stabilize the closed and assumed
thermally-insulated system, energy has to be shed off either from the
refrigerant or the working air. Heat pump dryers in Fig. 1(c) removes
heat from the refrigerant by the external condenser. Air bypass passage
Figure 1. Heat pump configurations (continue); C ¼ condenser, D ¼ dryer,

E ¼ evaporator, Ex.C ¼ external condenser, Ex. cooling ¼ external cooling.
provides an opportunity for different heat recovery capacity and moisture

content of the working air. It is envisaged that the energy efficiency and
performance will be affected by the bypassing air ratio. Excess energy can
also be removed from the air stream via an external cooling as depicted in
Figs. 1(d) and 1(e). The cooling media is water at 3 C below the ambient
temperature. The manipulation of the air stream will influence the condi-
tion of air at the entrance of the evaporator, at the dryer inlet and, hence
alters the performance of the HPD. Comparative studies of the five HPDs
will give an understanding of the role of the component arrangement and
manipulation of flow (mass and energy) on the HPD performance.
3. SIMULATION OF HPDs
3.1. Simulation Assumptions
Mathematical models of components were constructed having the

following assumptions:
– Heat pump dryer works at the steady state.

– Air duct and drying chamber are thermally insulated.
– No heat transfer to and from the mass of components even though
the working air condition is changing.
– Atmospheric pressure in the air circuit and there is no pressure
drop in the refrigerant lines.
– Ambient condition and the specific heat capacity of air are constant.
3.2. Component Simulation
The simulation was based on the first law of thermodynamics and the
Effectiveness-Number Transfer Unit (NTU). For the heat exchanger-type
components (i.e., condenser and evaporator) the effectiveness-NTU
method is applied for the heat transfer calculation. In the evaporator
simulation, both dry and wet (where heat and mass transfer occur simul-
taneously due to condensation) regions are appropriately taken into
account. The refrigerant condensing pressure is 2,426.6 kPa, as specified
by the compressor’s manufacturer (TecumsehTM model AV5546E). The
refrigerant is R-22 which its thermophysical properties are extracted from
Borgnakke and Sanntag[10] for equation formulation by curve fitting
technique. Mathematical model of the compressor is derived from the
manufacturer’s performance data. The drying process in the dryer is

assumed to follow the constant-wet-bulb temperature line in the psychro-
metric chart. The dryer model is represented by a term called ‘‘drying
efficiency (DE),’’ which is a ratio of the actual moisture removal to that of
the ideal dryer, where the air leaves the dryer at the saturated condition.
The DEs of 0.75 and 0.25 are used to represent the initial and final stage
of drying, respectively.
The external condenser is activated when the internal condenser is

overloaded. Its main role is to stabilize the system. The mathematical
model of the external condenser is the same as that of the internal con-
denser except it was assumed that the cooling air (the ambient air) flow
rate is 0.4 kg s1, which is 50% of the working air flow rate.
In the cooling-working air configuration, the cooling water temperature
is 3 C below the ambient temperature. The mass flow rate of water is
0.4 kg s1. Cooling of the working air occurs only when the working air is
5 C hotter than the water, which usually occurs during the final stage of
drying.
Detailed analysis of the simulation equations can be found else-
where.[11] Table 1 is the summary of the equations, which simulate the
component and system as illustrated in Fig. 2.
4. PERFORMANCE OF HPD
In many studies,[1,2,12] the coefficient of performance (COP) was used to

represent the HPD performance. However, it was considered in this study
that the COP indicates only the energy recovery ability of the heat pump;
only one side of the HPD system that cannot sufficiently describe the main
function—the drying performance. As a dryer, the key performance
indicators are the moisture extraction rate (MER, kg h1) and specific
moisture extraction rate (SMER, kg kW1 h1). MER directly gives the
product throughput rate while the SMER indicates the energy effective-
ness of the drying process. The SMER also reflects the drying cost, one of
the important factors in drying operation. Both MER and SMER are the
important parameters in the design and selection of HPD. The MER and
SMER are given by Eqs. (18) and (19), respectively (see Table 1).
4.1. Validation of the Models
Simulation of the HPD system is complicated especially for the closed

circuit one. It involves iteration process until convergence is achieved for
108
Table 1. Simulation models of HPD components.
Components Mathematical representation Equations referred in fig. 2
Condenser Qact ¼ "(mCP)air(Th,i Tc,i) 1

Ta,o ¼ Ta,i Qact/(mCP)air 2
hr,o ¼ hr,i Qact/mr 3
hr,i ¼ 180.6147 þ 20.18225 ln(Tr,i) þ 0.747918(Tr,i 60) 4
Evaporator Qact ¼ "(mCp)air(Ta,i Tevp) 5
(Dry region) Qact ¼ ma(ha,i ha,o) 6
ha ¼ CpaTa þ !(2503.02 þ 1.7637Ta) 7

Pw,sat 8
!sat ¼ 0:62198
Patm Pw,sat

6687:848 9
Pw,sat ¼ exp 50:10987 4:655564 lnðTsat þ 273:15Þ
Tsat þ 273:15
Evaporator Qact ¼ ma(ha,i ha,o) ma(!a,i !a,o)hw 10
(Wet region)
2728:62 11
ln Pr,sat ¼ 22:2088 1:70156 lnðTr,sat þ 273:15Þ
T r,sat þ 273:15

T þ 273:15 12
hr,o ¼ 498:5804 67:76551 lnðTr,o þ 273:15Þ þ 68:73422 r,o
100

Tr,o þ 273:15
20:40809 lnðPr,o Þ þ 4:121183 lnðPr,o Þ
100
Saensabai and Prasertsan

T r þ 273:15 2 T r þ 273:15 13
hr,l ¼ 21:05025 þ 2:422225 119:3846
100 100

Compressor 5:082812 P 14
Mr ¼ exp 9:426397 2:749374 ln r,o
Pr,o =Pr,i P
r,i
8561:776 Pr,o 15
Wc ¼ 12973:56 4395:357 ln
Pr,o =Pr,i Pr,i
Wc 16
hr,o ¼ hr,i þ 0:8
Mr
Dryer ma ð!a,o !a,i Þ T Ta,o 17
DE ¼ ¼ a,i
Performance of Heat Pump Dryers
ma ð!a,sat !a,i Þ Ta,i Ta,sat

MER MER ¼ ma(!o !i) 18
SMER SMER ¼ MER/Wc 19
109

Figure 2. (a) Information-flow diagram of condenser model; (b) Information-

flow diagram of evaporator model; (c) Information-flow diagram of HPD-A
(for fully open case).
both the working air and the refrigerant circuits. This paper will omit the
detail of simulation process as its principle was already given in the
previous publication.[11] The development of HPD in this study was
aimed for tropical climate, specifically in a very humid condition, e.g.,
rainy season where outdoor solar drying is frequently interrupted by rain.
The ambient temperature range and relative humidity are set at 2040 C
and 90%, respectively.
The simulation models were verified by the experimental results of
Prasertsan et al.[13] The independent parameters of the experiments such
as ambient conditions, dryer efficiency were substituted into the simula-
tion models to predict the HPD performance. Only the verification of
HPD-A configuration was discussed in this article and is shown in
Fig. 3. The simulation model, having error in the range of less than
10%, gave a good agreement with the MERs. However, it predicted
the SMERs with a higher error of up to 20%. The SMER was calcu-
lated from MER and compressor power, at which the error from both
components accumulated in SMER calculation. It is envisaged also that

Figure 2. Continued.
(continued)
the complicated arrangement of the refrigerant piping in the experimen-

tation (to obtain various HPD configurations) has created pressure
drop of the refrigerant, which was not included in the model, was
responsible for the lower actual performance. Similar results were
obtained for configurations (b) and (c). However, the experiment in
1997 by Prasertsan et. al.[8,13] did not cover the range of temperature
and humidity in this study. The study was not designed to determine
the effect of the component arrangement and configurations (d) and (e)
were not incorporated in the study either. It is concluded that the
simulation model can satisfactorily predict the tendency of HPD
performance quite accurately and is sufficient for the comparative
study of HPD configurations. The dependency of the quantitative

Figure 2. Continued.
Figure 3. Simulation and experimental results of HPD-A.

results on the technical performance of the components limits the model

from universal use.
Performance of HPD is influenced by interaction between the working
air, product drying characteristic, and the heat pump. To keep the
presentation in a proper length, only HPD-A is discussed in detail. For
other configurations, only MER and SMER are presented and discussed.
4.2. Detailed Discussion of HPD-A
Figure 4 gives MER, SMER, and COP of HPD-A for the case of 75%
dryer efficiency. The maximum values of MER, SMER, and COP are
17.8 kg h1, 3.6 kg kW1 h1, and 4.0, respectively. For low RAR, the
maximum MER occurs at ambient temperature around 27 C, which is
2 higher than the point of maximum SMER. RAR is defined as the ratio
of the recirculating air to the total working air. There are two factors
having a role in controlling MER and SMER, namely drying potential
(DP) of the working air and the compressor power. The drying potential
relates to and, in this study, is represented by the distance between the
state of the air at the dryer inlet and the saturation state measured along
the constant wet bulb temperature in the psychrometric chart. It is noted
that the drying potential as defined above is only a guideline for relative
Figure 4. MER, SMER, and COP of HPD-A for the case of 75% dryer efficiency.
comparison. Drying driving force of the air is a function of both tem-

perature and relative humidity. The same drying potential on the psycho-
metric chart does not imply a fixed initial state. This means that a low
drying potential can associate with high temperature, but at the expense
of high relative humidity. Alternatively, a low drying potential can occur
at low relative humidity and low temperature. For generalization, the
drying potential at any temperature was normalized by the percentage
of maximum drying potential, which is at 27 C in this case. It was found
that the normalized drying potential follows almost the same trend of the
MER as appeared in Fig. 5 (show only for RAR ¼ 0). In other words, the
MER almost linearly depends on the drying potential. The variation of
the drying potential is explained by the relative change of working air
temperature and humidity ratio with respect to the ambient temperature
(at constant ambient RH 90%). Both temperature and humidity ratio of
the working air entering the dryer increase with the increase of ambient
temperature, but at different rates (Fig. 5). A drastic change is observed
at ambient temperature higher than 27 C, when the rate of change of
temperature drops sharply in association with the rising changing rate of
humidity ratio. This has resulted in the decrease of drying potential at
temperature higher than 27 C, and hence the MER as appeared in Fig. 4.
Figure 5. Drying potential (DP), temperature and humidity of working air

entering the dryer of HPD-A for the case of 75% dryer efficiency and 0.0 RAR.
The decrease of COP at high ambient temperature (Fig. 4) can be

simply explained by the ineffectiveness of heat transfer at the condenser
due to the reduction of temperature difference. As the ambient tempera-
ture increases, the evaporating temperature and pressure of the refriger-
ant will also increase. The reduction of the pressure ratio across the
compressor and, consequently, the increase of the refrigerant mass flow
rate can be expected. The evaporating temperature and mass flow rate of
refrigerant are given in Fig. 6. As a result, it was found that within the
range of ambient temperature 20–40 C the compressor power increases
with the ambient temperature by about 1 kW.
At the high drying rate, MER and SMER are similar in pattern
because the change of the compressor power, although increases (non-
linearly) with the ambient temperature and RAR, is merely less than 20%
over the range of simulation. The performance is not sensitive to RAR,
unless at RAR higher than 0.7 (RAR ¼ 0.7, not shown in Fig. 4). The
more the air is recirculated, the poorer performance is obtained. As the
maximum performance occurs at around 25–27 C, it is unfortunate for
tropical countries, which the ambient is in the vicinity of 35 C, because
the performance drops sharply at temperature above the optimum values.
Performance of HPD-A at the low drying rate or the final stage of
drying (Fig. 7) is substantially different from that of the high drying rate
Figure 6. Refrigerant mass flow rate and evaporating temperature of HPD-A

for the case of 75% dryer efficiency and 0.0 RAR.

Figure 7. MER, SMER, and COP of HPD-A for the case of 25% dryer
efficiency.
one (Fig. 4). The best performance occurs at the lower regime of ambient
temperature. The maximum MER, SMER, and COP are 6.4 kg h1,
1.2 kg kW1 h1, and 4.4, respectively. As expected, the final drying
stage is not efficient in terms of MER and SMER. However, the COP
increases by about 10%. The working air leaves the dryer at high drying
potential (high temperature and low moisture content) which enhances
the sensible heat recovery at the evaporator. Consequently, heat transfer
at the condenser increases and hence the COP (in comparison to the high
drying rate case). It should be noted, however, that at the low drying rate
the compressor power is slightly higher than that of at the high drying
rate. It is concluded that RAR is not a beneficial operating condition for
HPD-A and the fully open system (RAR ¼ 0) would be better for both at
high and low drying rates.
4.3. Performance of Other Configurations
Extensive study was carried out for other four configurations. The
interaction of the two working fluids was evaluated over the range of
ambient temperature, recirculating air ratio (RAR) and bypass air ratio
(BAR). Bypass air ratio is defined as the amount of air bypassing the
evaporator divided by the total working air. In the open system, the
ambient condition and RAR directly alter the working air condition,
which consequently affects the performance of the heat pump compo-
nents (evaporator and condenser). In the closed system, the ambient
temperature plays its role through the external condenser/cooling.
Because of the interaction of the two working fluids, change in one will
inevitably change the other.
HPD-B
Heat pump dryer-B is a partially closed system. Excess energy in the

system is shed off from the working air before the evaporator. Figure 8(a)
gives the drying performance of HPD-B at the high drying rate. Obviously,
both ambient temperature and the RAR play a significant role in the
system performance. As the RAR increases (approaching closed
system), maximum MER and SMER are obtainable at lower ambient
temperature. Within the range of simulation conditions, the maximum
MER and SMER are 16.6 kg h1 and 3.4 kg kW1 h1, respectively, both
at 0.8 RAR. The corresponding ambient temperature for maximum MER
and SMER is 30 C. The operation for optimum performance for higher
ambient temperature is achieved by reducing the recirculating air (low
RAR) and vice versa. Similar trend was observed for the low
drying rate case, Fig. 8(b). However, the peak performance of both
MER and SMER shifted to the lower ambient temperature regime and
higher RAR. That is, at the final stage of drying the HPD should be
operated with a near-to-closed system, if the ambient temperature is
low, e.g., nighttime. For tropical countries, where the daytime ambient
temperature is in the vicinity of 35 C, 0.6 RAR is recommended at the
initial stage of drying and then gradually decreases to 0.5 at the final stage.
In other words, more open system should be used as the product dries out.
It is noted that the performance (both at high and low drying rate) at the
recommended RAR is quite sensitive to the ambient temperature. For
example, a 5 C deviated from 35 C results in the reduction of MER
by 2–3 kg h1 and 0.7–1.0 kg h1 for the high and low drying rate, respec-
tively. In tropical countries, where the daytime temperature is in the range
of 30–38 C, it is, therefore, suggested that the operation of HPD-B must
change RAR according to the change of ambient conditions. For example,
at 30 C ambient temperature the 0.8 and 0.7 RAR are recommended for
the high and low drying rate, respectively. Careful adjustment of RAR
should also be implemented accordingly in the nighttime drying.

Figure 8. MER and SMER of HPD-B (a) DE ¼ 0.75, (b) DE ¼ 0.25.
HPD-C
This configuration is more complicated than HPD-A and HPD-B not

only because of being a closed system, but also due to the provision of the
evaporator bypassing air. Ambient air interacts the system through the Tốc độ sấy cao: Công suất của cấu hình
external condenser. The idea behind this configuration is based on a không liên quan đến nhiệt độ môi trường
xung quanh nhưng phụ thuộc mạnh vào giá
hypothesis that the bypass air provides an advantageous effect on the trị BAR. Trong rải nhiệt độ xung quanh
moisture condensation at the evaporator and thus enhances the dehumi- được mô phỏng, công suất máy nén của
difying capability of the heat pump system.[14] The relative humidity of HPD-C đơn giản tăng 3%. Điều này đáng
ngạc nhiên để note lại rằng việc bypass
the air entering the dryer would be subsequently reduced. không khí có ảnh hưởng xấu (adserve) đến
For the case of high drying rate, it is clear from Fig. 9(a) that the không suất HPD
Hiện tượng này được giải thích bởi BAR
performances of this configuration were not sensitive to the ambient tem-

(Bypass Air Ratio: tỉ lệ không khí Bypass)
perature but strongly depend on the BAR values. Within the simulated làm giảm đáng kể (drastically) khả năng
range of ambient temperature, the compressor power of HPD-C merely sấy của TNS. Nhiệt độ của TNS tại đầu ra
increases by 3%. It is interesting to note that bypassing air has adverse của condenser ảnh hưởng không đáng kể
bởi sự thay đổi nhiệt độ không khí xung
effect on the HPD performance. This phenomenon is explained by the fact quanh và Tỉ lệ không khí Bypass (BAR)
that BAR drastically reduces the drying potential of the working air. The bởi vì độ ẩm được mang theo bởi không
working air temperature (at condenser outlet) is insignificantly affected by khí bypass và hồi về buổng sấy. Thêm nữa,
lưu lượng khối lượng thấp trong evap làm
the change of ambient temperature and BAR. But the humidity ratio giảm hệ số truyền nhiệt U (K). Điều này là
substantially increases with the BAR values, because the moisture is hết quả cho sự tăng độ ẩm tương đối và kể
carried by the bypassing air and returns to the drying chamber. In addi- từ đây (hence) giảm năng suất sấy (drying
potential).
tion, the lower mass flow rate in the evaporator reduces the heat transfer
coefficient at the evaporator. This has resulted in an increase of the relative Tốc độ sấy thấp: Điều kiện TNS ra khỏi
buồng sấy là khác so với case tốc độ sấy
humidity and hence the reduction of the drying potential. cao. Năng suất sấy không đáng kể ảnh
At the low drying rate, the working air conditions existing from the hưởng bởi BẢ, nhưng nó nhiều hơn liên
dryer are different from that of the high drying rate case. Its drying quan đến sự thay đổi nhiệt độ của không
khí xung quanh (đang so sánh với case tốc
potential is not substantially affected by the BAR, but is more sensitive độ sấy cao) . Vì trong dải thay đổi BAR thì
to the change of the ambient temperature (in comparison to the high MER chay đổi 9% còn SMER thay đổi
drying rate case). For the whole range of BAR variation, the MER 25%. Điều này đnags để note lại rằng
MER max xảy ra tại BAR = 0,5 trong khí
and SMER change by 9% and 25%, respectively. It should be noted BAR=0.7 là case SMER max . Nó là 1 kết
that the maximum MER occurs at BAR ¼ 0.5, while BAR ¼ 0.7 is the quả của sự không tuyến tính dựa vào công
case for maximum SMER. This was a result of the non-linear dependency suất máy nén ở giá trị BAR. Vì điều này
nên kết luận rằng Bypass không khí là iệu
of the compressor power on the BAR values. It is, therefore, concluded quả ở duy nhất tốc tộc sấy thấp, ở đó TNS
that the bypassing air is effective only at the low drying rate, where the rời khỏi buồng sấy sử hữu (possesses)
working air leaving the dryer possesses a high drying potential. năng suất sấy cao
HPD-D
The bypassing of working air before and after the external cooling
process would directly alter the evaporator load and hence the heat
pump cycle. This effect is described by the last two HPD configurations.
The ambient temperature affects the capacity of the external cooling and
consequently the evaporator and finally the HPD performance. The per-
formance of HPD-D is shown in Fig. 10. In general, the peak performance

Figure 9. MER and SMER of HPD-C (a) DE ¼ 0.75, (b) DE ¼ 0.25.
appears in the vicinity of 35 C ambient temperature. To obtain the peak

MER and SMER at this tropical climate, the system should be operated
with BAR between 0.2 and 0.4, respectively. The peak moves toward the
higher temperature range as BAR increases. At BAR greater than 0.6, the
peak values seem to be beyond the limit 40 C ambient temperature.

Figure 10. MER and SMER of HPD-D (a) DE ¼ 0.75, (b) DE ¼ 0.25.
However, for the low drying rate, the performance (both MER and
SMER) increases linearly with the ambient temperature without any peak
value (within the range of the simulation). The MER is doubled as the
ambient temperature changes from 20 C to 40 C. Bypassing the working
air is still not a useful practice, as the MER is low when the BAR value is
high. It is explainable that BAR has resulted in less heat recovery at the
evaporator and thus reduced the heating capacity of the condenser; hence
the drying temperature at the condenser outlet. In contrast with MER,
the SMER slightly increases with the increase of BAR. This is due to the
fact that the compressor work is significantly reduced (by about 25%)
as the BAR moves from 0 to 0.7.
HPD-E
Figure 11 shows the drying performance for the case of bypassing the
working air before the external cooling facility (HPD-E). It is obvious
that for the high drying rate the bypassing of working air is not a
beneficial practice for the drying rate (MER). However, the SMER at
33–37 C ambient temperature gains slight advantage from the bypassing
of the air. In general, the provision of BAR is acceptable for the low
drying rate as long as the ambient temperature is not greater than 36 C
(Fig. 11(b)). At high ambient temperature, the cooling does not effec-
tively remove heat from the working air. It seems so far that the bypass
air has to be carefully regulated according to the drying rate of the
product, if this model is to be employed.
4.4. Comparison of the Five Configurations
Table 2 is the summary of optimum results of all configurations. The

results are drawn for three ambient temperatures at 30 C, 35 C, and
40 C. They are temperatures often faced in tropical countries. In addi-
tion, it was found that 35 C is the turning point of many configurations.
Results in Table 2 can be used as operating guideline of the heat pump
dryer. At the first glance, HPD-D and HPD-E are not appropriate for the
high drying rate and HPD-A for the low drying rate, since they did not
exhibit any peak performance at all.
It is apparent that for the high drying rate, HPD-B is the most efficient
option at 35 C. Although the MER is just marginally better than other
configurations, the SMER is substantially superior to the others. As the
ambient temperature deviates from the mean 35 C, the operation for the
best MER must be changed. The fully open system (HPD-A, RAR ¼ 0)
and fully closed system (HPD-C, BAR ¼ 0) are recommended for
the ambient temperature 30 C and 40 C, respectively. However, at
these two temperatures the best SMER performance is still be that of

Figure 11. MER and SMER of HPD-E (a) DE ¼ 0.75, (b) DE ¼ 0.25.
HPD-B, but at different BAR values. The lower the ambient temperature
is, the higher flow of the recirculating air should be allowed.
At low drying rate, it seems that configurations D and E (external
cooling with bypass air) give a favorable results. It is obvious that
124
Table 2. Optimum performance and operating of HPD in tropical climate.
HPD
DE (%) Amb. temp ( C) Performance indicators A B C D E
75 30 MER 17.43 (0.0) 16.59 (0.8) 15.40 (0.0) 15.34 (0.0) 15.28 (0.1)
SMER 3.33 (0.0) 3.44 (0.8) 3.04 (0.0) 3.25 (0.0) 3.31 (0.2)
35 MER 15.48 (0.0) 15.92 (0.6) 15.34 (0.0) 15.80 (0.2) 15.30 (0.1)
SMER 2.80 (0.0) 3.42 (0.6) 2.99 (0.0) 3.31 (0.3) 3.30 (0.4)
40 MER 13.21 (0.0) 14.02 (0.4) 15.13 (0.0) 12.59 (0.6) 12.13 (0.1)
SMER 2.34 (0.0) 3.05 (0.4) 2.93 (0.0) 2.93 (0.6) 2.17 (0.1)
25 30 MER 5.81 (0.0) 5.82 (0.7) 6.35 (0.6) 4.47 (0.1) 5.68 (0.7)
SMER 1.04 (0.0) 1.17 (0.7) 1.49 (0.7) 1.03 (0.6) 1.50 (0.7)
35 MER 5.16 (0.0) 5.29 (0.5) 5.92 (0.5) 5.23 (0.1) 6.16 (0.7)
SMER 0.91 (0.0) 1.13 (0.5) 1.46 (0.7) 1.15 (0.5) 1.43 (0.5)
40 MER 4.44 (0.3) 4.45 (0.4) 5.85 (0.5) 6.09 (0.1) 5.80 (0.1)
SMER 0.80 (0.3) 1.01 (0.3) 1.26 (0.7) 1.27 (0.5) 1.12 (0.1)
Values in parentheses indicate the operating condition, e.g., BAR or RAR, if applicable.
Bold figures indicate the maximum among the five configurations.
Saensabai and Prasertsan
frequent changing of operating mode is needed. The operations for

the best MER are HPD-B (0.7 RAR), HPD-E (0.7 BAR), and HPD-D
(0.1 BAR) for the ambient temperatures of 30, 35, and 40 C, respectively.
However, the corresponding configurations for the best SMER are HPD-
E (0.7 BAR), HPD-C (0.7 BAR), and HPD-D (0.5 BAR), respectively. It
is obvious that the optimum operation for the low drying rate product is
very complicated, since the HPD must be designed to cope with the
changing (almost continual basis in batch drying) systems, which require

both external condenser and external cooler. This kind of system is costly
and may not be worth to develop, unless the energy and throughput rate
are significant economic parameters.
5. CONCLUSION
The performances of five heat pump dryer configurations were studied.

Mathematical model and simulation were carried out. It was concluded
that the best operating mode of the heat pump dryer depends on both
drying rate and ambient condition. For the case of tropical climate and
high drying rate, the partially open system is likely to be the optimum
operating mode, except at some certain conditions. However, the opera-
tion for the low drying rate is more complicated as the optimum config-
uration is sensitive to the ambient temperature and drying rate. The HPD
design for the low drying rate product must accommodate the continuous
change of configurations with external condenser and cooler. It may be
concluded that the HPD is suitable for continuous dryer, where the dryer
efficiency (DE) is constant. Once the throughput rate is selected (or fixed
DE), the results from this study can be applied for the design of HPD at a
given ambient condition.
NOMENCLATURE
Cp Specific heat (kJ kg1)

h Enthalpy (kJ kg1)
m, M Mass flow rate (kg s1)
P Pressure (kPa)
Q Heat transfer rate (kW)
T Temperature (K or C)
Wc Compressor power (W)
" Heat exchanger effectiveness ¼ 0.75

! Absolute humidity
Subscripts
a Air
act Actual
atm Ambient
cond Condenser
evp Saturated condition at evaporator
i Inlet
l Liquid
o Outlet
r Refrigerant
sat Saturated condition
w Vapor or water
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the Thailand Research Fund and the
Joint Graduate School on Energy and Environment for the financial
support to this project.
REFERENCES
1. Jia, X.; Jolly, P.; Clements, S. Heat pump assisted continuous drying
part 2: simulation results. Int. J. Energy Research 1990, 14, 771–782.
2. Clements, S.; Jia, X.; Jolly, P. Experimental verification of a heat
pump assisted continuous dryer: simulation model. Int. J. Energy
Research 1993, 17, 19–28.
3. Prasertsan, S.; Saen-Saby, P. Heat pump drying of agricultural mate-
rials. Drying Technology 1998(a), 16, 235–250.
4. Prasertsan, S.; Saen-Saby, P.; Prateepchaikul, G.; Ngamsritrakul, P.
Effects of product drying rate and ambient condition on operating
mode of heat pump dryer, Proc. 10th International Drying
Symposium, Krakow, 1996, 529–534.
5. Chua, K.J.; Mujumdar, A.S.; Hawlader, M.N.A.; Chou, S.K.; Ho,
J.C. Convective drying of agricultural products: effect of continuous
and stepwise change in drying air temperature. Drying Technology

2001, 19, 1949–1960.
6. Alves-Filho, O.; Strommen, I. The application of heat pump in
drying of biomaterials. Drying Technology 1996, 14, 2061–2090.
7. Prasertsan, S.; Saen-Saby, P. Heat pump dryer: research and devel-
opment needs and opportunities. Drying Technology 1998(b), 16,
251–270.
8. Prasertsan, S.; Saen-Saby, P.; Ngamsritrakul, P.; Prateechaikul, G.

Heat pump dryer part 2: results of the simulation. Int. J. Energy
Research 1997(a), 21, 1–20.
9. Achariyaviriya, S.; Soponronnarit, S.; Terdyothin, A. Mathematical
model development and simulation of heat pump fruit dryer. Drying
Technology 2000, 18, 479–491.
10. Borgnakke, C.; Sonntag, R.E. Thermodynamic and Transport
Properties; John Wiley and Sons: USA, 1997.
Heat pump dryer part 1: Simulation of the models. Int. J. Energy
Research 1996(b), 20, 1067–1079.
12. Baines, P.G.; Carrington, C.G.; Cox-Smith, I.R. An assessment of
heat pump timber driers, 3rd International Symposium on the Large
Scale Application of Heat Pump, Oxford, 1987, 231–236.
Heat pump dryer part 3: experiment verification of the simulation.
Int. J. Energy Research 1997(b), 21, 707–722.
14. Young, G.S.; Mason, R.L.; Britnell, S.; Fitz-Payne, S. Dehumidifier
heat pump for process drying, Foodtech ASIA’92 International
Food and Agrotechnology Conference, Singapore, June 17–19,
1992.

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Saskatchewan Library]

On: 29 May 2013, At: 16:52

Drying Technology: An International Journal

Effects of Component Arrangement and Ambient and

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Eﬀects of Component Arrangement and Ambient

P. Saensabai1 and S. Prasertsan2,*

Performances of ﬁve heat pump dryer (HPD) conﬁgurations were

*Correspondence: S. Prasertsan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prince

DOI: 10.1081/DRT-120017286 0737-3937 (Print); 1532-2300 (Online)

104 Saensabai and Prasertsan

more complicated, as the optimum conﬁguration is sensitive to the

A heat pump, when equipped with a dryer, is used to recover heat

Performance of Heat Pump Dryers 105

contradictory conclusions in some cases). It was, therefore, suggested that

Figure 1. Heat pump conﬁgurations (continue); C ¼ condenser, D ¼ dryer,

106 Saensabai and Prasertsan

provides an opportunity for diﬀerent heat recovery capacity and moisture

3.1. Simulation Assumptions

Mathematical models of components were constructed having the

– Heat pump dryer works at the steady state.

3.2. Component Simulation

Performance of Heat Pump Dryers 107

manufacturer’s performance data. The drying process in the dryer is

The external condenser is activated when the internal condenser is

In many studies,[1,2,12] the coeﬃcient of performance (COP) was used to

4.1. Validation of the Models

Simulation of the HPD system is complicated especially for the closed

Table 1. Simulation models of HPD components.

Components Mathematical representation Equations referred in ﬁg. 2

Condenser Qact ¼ "(mCP)air(Th,i Tc,i) 1

ma ð!a,sat !a,i Þ Ta,i Ta,sat

110 Saensabai and Prasertsan

Figure 2. (a) Information-ﬂow diagram of condenser model; (b) Information-

Performance of Heat Pump Dryers 111

the complicated arrangement of the refrigerant piping in the experimen-

112 Saensabai and Prasertsan

Figure 3. Simulation and experimental results of HPD-A.

Performance of Heat Pump Dryers 113

results on the technical performance of the components limits the model

4.2. Detailed Discussion of HPD-A

114 Saensabai and Prasertsan

comparison. Drying driving force of the air is a function of both tem-

Figure 5. Drying potential (DP), temperature and humidity of working air

Performance of Heat Pump Dryers 115

The decrease of COP at high ambient temperature (Fig. 4) can be

Figure 6. Refrigerant mass ﬂow rate and evaporating temperature of HPD-A

116 Saensabai and Prasertsan

4.3. Performance of Other Conﬁgurations

Performance of Heat Pump Dryers 117

Heat pump dryer-B is a partially closed system. Excess energy in the

118 Saensabai and Prasertsan

Figure 8. MER and SMER of HPD-B (a) DE ¼ 0.75, (b) DE ¼ 0.25.

This conﬁguration is more complicated than HPD-A and HPD-B not

Performance of Heat Pump Dryers 119

performances of this conﬁguration were not sensitive to the ambient tem-

120 Saensabai and Prasertsan

Figure 9. MER and SMER of HPD-C (a) DE ¼ 0.75, (b) DE ¼ 0.25.

appears in the vicinity of 35 C ambient temperature. To obtain the peak

Performance of Heat Pump Dryers 121

122 Saensabai and Prasertsan

4.4. Comparison of the Five Conﬁgurations