DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF A SOLAR DISTILLATION SYSTEM FOR THE PROCESSING OF MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS

摘要

With the increasing population and industrialization, there is need to cut down the load of fossil fuels and to reduce environmental pollution. Solar energy investments in developing countries are imperative to avoid an energy crisis arising from over-dependence on fossil fuels. The situation is critical because fossil fuels are finite and fast depleting (Okoro, 2004). From a number of studies on industrial heat demand, several industrial sectors have been identified with favorable conditions for the application of solar energy. The most important applications of solar energy using heat are: sterilizing, extraction, pasteurizing, drying, solar cooling and air conditioning, hydrolyzing, distillation and evaporation, washing and cleaning, and polymerization. The ranges of all these processes lie between 60-280 °C (Kalogirou, 2003). Most of the agro-based industries can be operated in this medium temperature range. The use of solar energy in agriculture sector can be used to process many perishable agricultural products at farm level.