Energetic, economic, and global warming aspects of fluidized bed drying of the medicinal plant Echium Amoenum Fisch. & C. A. Mey

Abstract

This research aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the drying conditions in a pilot-scale fluidized bed dryer by considering energetic, economic and global warming aspects. Echium amoenum Fisch. & C. A. Mey. E. amoenum petals were dried at a temperature range of 40-60 C and air velocities of 0.5 to 1 m s À1 . According to the results, the air velocity has a positive effect but the drying temperature has a negative impact on the specific energy consumption (SEC), the production cost and the GHG emissions. It was observed that the case of 0.5 m s À1 air velocity and 60 C drying temperature, the production cost, the SEC and the GHG emissions were minimized. However, considering the quality of the dried E. amoenum petals the optimal conditions were obtained at 60 C drying temperature and 0.91 m s À1 air velocity.Under these conditions, GHG emissions, production cost and SEC of dried E. amoenum petals would be 60.56 g CO 2 kg À1 , $38.87 kg À1 of dried E. amoenum petals and 29.87 MJ kg À1 of evaporated water, respectively.