Drying Biomass Using Solar Energy: Comparison
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Please note this is a comparison between Version 2 by Conner Chen and Version 1 by Emerita Delgado.

In the world, energy used for drying processes consumes 7–15% of industrial energy. Therefore, the cost of this energy is a crucial challenge to looking for an alternative source of energy, for example, solar energy. Solar energy is available in almost all the world, is free and provides a clean and free pollution energy source. Furthermore, solar energy has a higher development potential than other alternative energy sources, such as the ocean, biomass and geothermal.

  • biomass
  • biofuel
  • sustainable resources
  • bioenergy

1. Introduction

A rural sector is a territory with a small number of inhabitants, where the main economic activity is agriculture. In this context, more than 123 million people live in the rural sector of Latin America, with a poverty rate of 45.7% and extreme poverty of 21.7%, two and three times higher than in urban areas, respectively [1]. Additionally, around 20 million Latin Americans do not have access to electricity [2], the rural sector being the most affected. Therefore, any initiative to obtain energy in the rural sector is highly relevant for the region.
Bioenergy is an essential alternative for energy production, thereby mitigating the continuous advance of global warming caused by the indiscriminate use of fossil fuels. The use of bioenergy is different in each country or region. Usually, it is 3% in industrialized countries, and in developing countries it can reach 22% on average [3].
Currently, the Latin American consumption of biofuels, natural gas, electricity, oil, and mineral coal is 27%, 6.5%, 6%, 5% and 1%, respectively [4,5][4][5]. The previous data show that Latin America is an important consumer of biofuel, mainly primary biofuels since this region has 23% of the world’s forests [6] and 14% of the world’s crops [7]. Worldwide, only 3% of biomass is used to generate electricity [5], while in Latin America it is 8.4% (or 5% of the total energy consumption), with a thermal installed capacity of 20.6 GW [8].
The technological use of biomass and biofuel to generate renewable energy is one of the new challenges that Latin America must take on to face climate change. Although Latin America is not a major emitter of greenhouse gasses, this region could face the greatest consequences if the planet’s temperature continues to rise. Moreover, in Latin America, biomass is traditionally used to generate primary energy. In many rural areas of the region, the largest amount of energy comes from biomass, but not as a renewable source. A clear example of an unsustainable practice in poor countries is the use of firewood, from deforestation residues, for cooking, generating harmful effects on health. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency [9], biomass has a promising future as it could represent 60% of total renewable energy use by 2030, with great potential in all sectors: around 30% of global biomass could be used to produce electricity and district heating; another 30% in the production of biofuels for the transport sector; the rest in heat for the manufacturing industry and buildings. Biomass energy is a promising renewable energy source and has an enormous potential to fulfill the energy requirements of the country [10].
It is known that the use of biomass residues can vary according to: (1) the type and quantity of residues, (2) the method of utilization, (3) the community or rural sector needs and (4) the logistical cost. Additionally, residual biomass can be classified as: agricultural waste, urban waste, livestock waste, forestry waste and industrial agri-food or agricultural waste. Thus, this resource can be used to produce heat or electricity; for instance, biomass from energy crops is used to produce liquid fuels or gasses that can be burned and converted into heat energy. Therefore, the technology selection is determined based on the biomass characteristics, energy use and type of energy production (thermal or electrical) (see Table 1). It should be considered that a pre-treatment of the biomass can be required before use in the different processes mentioned in Table 1, for example, crushing, chipping, grinding, drying, and pelletizing, among other treatments that guarantee an optimal efficiency of the technology for generating heat or electricity. In the combustion, gasification and pyrolysis processes, the biomass must contain a low percentage of moisture to prevent the evaporation of water from consuming part of the energy and reducing the performance of the process.
Table 1.
Processes and technologies based on biomass for producing electrical and/or thermal energy.
Biomass Process Technology Biomass State Product Waste Reference
Industrial agri-food and forestry waste, forestry waste, agricultural waste, energy crops, urban solid waste Combustion Direct combustion Combustion Furnaces: Fixed Bed Combustion, Bubbling Fluidized Bed Combustion, Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion, Pulverized Fuel Combustion.

Grate furnaces: fixed, moving, traveling, rotary and vibratory.

Operating temperature: between 700 and 1000 °C.

Yield: 80% using dry biomass, 60% wet biomass.

Operating pressure: 6–15 kPa.		 Dry (moisture less than 13%). Wet (humidity greater than 40%).

Calorific power for biomass 18 and 22 MJ/kg

Particle size:

Grills < 150 mm.

Fluidized bed < 100 mm.

Combustion of pulverized fuel < 4 mm.		 Saturated or superheated steam Solids (ashes)

Inorganic compounds		 [11,12,13][11][12][13]
Thermochemical Gasification Gasifiers:

Downdraft: ascending and descending fixed bed types.

Updraft: cross flow/fluid bed or fixed bed.

Fluidized Bed Gasifiers: bubbling and encircling.

Operating temperature: 600–1000 °C.

Approximate yield: 85%.

Operating pressure: 101–3000 kPa.		 Dry (humidity < 15%) Syngas

Low heating value 5.5 MJ/m3		 Solids (ashes) [11,[12,1114,15]][12][14][15]
Pyrolysis Pyrolytic oven fluidized bed.

Operating temperature: Slow pyrolysis 250–600 °C.

Fast pyrolysis 600–1000 °C. Flash pyrolysis can reach 1200 °C. Hydro pyrolysis 550 °C. If municipal solid waste is used, temperatures range between 550 and 1100 °C.

Approximate yield: Slow pyrolysis: 40–50% liquid, 10–20% solid, and 20–30% gas.

Fast pyrolysis: 60–75% liquid, 15–25 solid, and 10–20 gas.

Flash pyrolysis: greater than 80% gas		 Dry (humidity < 15%) Charcoal, liquid fuel, gaseous fuel Liquid (water, organic compounds), gasses, ashes [11,16,17][11][16][17]
Hydrothermal process Reactor type:

Plug flow, batch and continuous stirred tank,

operating temperature, pressure, and residence time:

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC): 160–250 °C, 1–4 MPa, hours.

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL):

250–400 °C, 5–20 MPa, minutes.

Hydrothermal gasification (HTG):

400–700 °C, 20–35 MPa, minutes.		 Wet Hydrochar (solid biofuel),

Biocrude (liquid biofuel), Fuel gases (CH4 or H2)		 Liquid phase (water with polar organic compounds) [18,19,20][18][19][20]
Industrial agri-food waste, livestock waste, solid waste and urban wastewater Biological Anaerobic digestion Biodigester: Continuous digesters and discontinuous digesters.

Plastic or tubular bag digesters, fixed dome biodigester (Chinese type). Floating dome biodigester (Hindu type).

Biomass fermentation: 30 to 90 days depending on the residue.

Functional temperature: 30–35 °C.		 Wet Biogas Biol, compost used for fertilizer [11,21,22][11][21][22]
Thermophilic digestion Two-stage:

Acidogenic bioreactor (the feed tank and acidogenic reactor were cylindrical stainless steel (AISI 321), volume of 12 L) and electromethanogenic reactors (cylindrical tank with a volume of 19 L).

Biomass: Solid waste, 26 to 55 days of fermentation for stage.

Functional temperature: 50–60 °C.		 Wet Producing biohydrogen and methane solid and liquid [23]
The profitability of transformation processes, even for the same technology, is highly dependent on each case. The different operating conditions of the various processes based on the use of biomass, such as climate and geographic location, type and quality of biomass, equipment, level of technological development, and waste generated, among others, affect its performance. For example, in the case of cogeneration, Marchenko et al. [24] showed that the cost of electricity of mini-CHP on wood fuel (wood chips or pellets) is significantly less than the cost of electricity from a diesel power station.
The profitability of using biomass as an energy source is conditioned by the type of biomass, logistics cost, technological acquisition capacity or technological replicability from the design stage, materials and technicians of the community [25,26,27][25][26][27]. On the other hand, biomass energy generation costs depend on its final use (industrial or domestic processes, heating or electricity). For example, in household applications, the energy from biomass is used in cooking, heating and biomass boilers to produce hot water for the home by burning chips, logs, olive pits, pellets or briquettes [28,29,30][28][29][30]. Meanwhile, in collective applications (industrial process), the cost will depend on the installed thermal power of the thermal plant, piping, maintenance, system operation and price of the biomass source [31,32,33][31][32][33]. Therefore, the profitability of using biomass is a challenge worldwide, for example, Zhao et al. [34] established a Five Forces Model (the competitors, suppliers, buyers, potential competitors and substitutes) for assessing the competitiveness of China’s biomass power industry in 2015. In this industry, similar to the Latin American reality, the national support in the form of financial subsidies, tax benefits, tariff concessions and technical support policy has played a significant role in promoting the development of the biomass power generation industry. The vast majority of enterprises are dependent on the sensational support policies in order to be profitable. Therefore, the government support for bioenergy production in the rural sector is necessary to improve people’s quality of life and become independent of a central energy supply.

2. Preprocessing: Drying Biomass Using Solar Energy

The drying process is one of the oldest methods used to preserve grains, fruits, meats, and medicinal plants. It allows for food preservation for a long time and reduces the cost of logistics during the transport of the product. The drying technology varies depending on the production capacity, type of fuel used, moisture required to be removed from the product, time of use, and technological cost. However, it is clear that solar dryers are the most used in rural areas, in low-scale agricultural productions. However, it is a technology that has reached its maturity to be implemented for drying large-capacity grains and fruits. It is an alternative that allows for greenhouse gas mitigation and tackling climate change. Research about the development of technologies in the applications of renewable resources has been deployed due to the increase in energy demand and the increase in environmental pollution [35]. To guarantee energy insurance in a country, it is necessary to work on the diversification, availability, reliability and accessibility of energy sources applied to various strategic sectors, such as agriculture [36]. The need to improve the quality and quantity of agricultural products has caused investment in new agriculture techniques. However, this need means high capital expenditure and new methods and tools to satisfy the energy demand. This last has been rising, especially in isolated areas due to growing population, food demand and agriculture automatization [37]. Fossil fuels are the typical energy source in agriculture processes, but transportation, difficult access to isolated areas and environmental pollution, such as CO2 emissions [36[36][38],38], have made it necessary to use alternative energy sources to meet the demand in the agriculture process, for example, postharvest. In the world, energy used for drying processes consumes 7–15% of industrial energy [39]. Therefore, the cost of this energy is a crucial challenge to looking for an alternative source of energy, for example, solar energy. Solar energy is available in almost all the world, is free and provides a clean and free pollution energy source [35,40][35][40]. Furthermore, solar energy has a higher development potential than other alternative energy sources, such as the ocean, biomass and geothermal [41]. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) [42], in 2020, only 0.2% of the installed capacity for energy generation from renewable resources corresponded to solar thermal projects; this energy was equivalent to 6506.68 [MW]. Figure 21 shows the installed power generation capacity globally for the use of renewable energy sources.
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Figure 21.
Installed power generation capacity worldwide from renewable resources by 2020 [42].
For the particular case of Latin America and the Caribbean, in 2020, the primary generation with renewable energies was more than 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent (MBEP); this value represents 32.8% of the energy generated in the region, the primary sources being hydropower, sugar cane and firewood, each with a contribution of approximately 460 thousand MBEP [4]. On the Scopus platform, 3779 results are displayed searching for the keywords solar dryer from 2013 to 2023. India presents the largest number of publications, followed by Morocco, Iran, and Turkey. In Latin America, 282 results are recorded (Figure 32a). The review of each article shows results associated with the drying of products, analysis of biomass moisture, the adaptation of materials, radiation, and climate. When a deeper filter is applied to the keyword drying technology, 986 results are displayed, of which 73 are publications from Latin American countries (Figure 32b). In the region, the publication is diverse, as there are no specialized journals for this topic. For example, some works were published in Solar Energy (five publications), Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola Ambiental (four publications), Revista Mexicana de Ingenieria quimica (three publications), Energy procedia (three publications); other journals such as Applied Sciences, Renewable Energy and others have published between one and two articles. On the other hand, it was evidenced that designs of solar dryers in the region are published in the databases of the Universities as undergraduate or postgraduate theses.
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Figure 32. Results of publications from Latin American countries. (a) General search with the keywords solar dryer, platform Scopus 2013 to 2023. (b) Specific search for solar dryer technology. Scopus Platform 2013 to 2023.
It can be indicated in a general way that in the Latin American region, solar thermal dryers are the most used technology in the rural agricultural sectors for their ease of operation, construction, use of local materials, and reduction in electrical energy consumption. Although, the efficiency of solar dryers is low due to the dependence on solar irradiation and geographic location. The use of solar radiation for drying is ancient and their customs go through tradition; therefore, rural communities have the vision that greenhouse-type dryers help to obtain a quality product, are ecological and are suitable for their economy in the short term. Solar dryers are classified into direct and indirect concerning the incident solar radiation on the product. In direct dryers, the radiation is absorbed by the product itself, usually using a greenhouse-type drying chamber built with transparent plastic. The indirect-type dryer comprises a collector, a covered drying chamber, and a set of trays. The air is heated by the collector and enters the drying chamber passing through the trays, leaving the humid air through a duct to the environment; the system can be used by natural or forced convection [40]. The direct solar dryers may have reached higher temperatures than indirect ones due to the energy gain in the chamber [43]. Another technology analyzed is hybrid dryers with thermal performance and increased energy and efficiency of the drying process, coupling solar dryers to other energy. In Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Colombia, studies for drying cereal grains are presented. In the first case, the heat emitted by the photovoltaic panel is used to preheat the fluid, reaching a temperature of up to 40 °C, then it passes to a solar collector and drying chamber. The drying process only occurs during the day. At night, the electric heater works and heats the airflow [44]. The efficiency of the dryer reaches 40%. In the second case, geothermal energy is used as a temperature contribution to the solar collector; later, the hot air passes to the drying chamber, which is complemented by an electrical resistance connected to the network that provides the energy required in the chamber on cloudy days. The operating temperature is 50 °C and the dryer has an efficiency of 60%. If it works only as a solar dryer, the efficiency drops to 30% [45]. In the third case, the coffee dryer uses the coffee husk as a source of combustion energy. The combustion chamber was dimensioned referencing the energy release rate of the husk. It consists of a fixed grill with an inclination angle of 16°; it has 105 holes distributed, so there are 8 holes on each side with a diameter of 0.05 m [46]. The air enters through the solar collector to preheat it. Subsequently, it passes through the fan and is carried to the combustion chamber as primary and secondary air. Simultaneously, a feeder screw is used to administer fuel and coffee husk to the chamber to carry out the combustion. The combustion gasses are directed through a heat exchanger in order to transfer their energy to the drying air entering the dryer chamber of trays. The dryer leads to a reduction of 80% in operating costs compared to the traditional system [46]. The semi-continuous solar dryers for rice consist of solar heaters, a drying chamber, a heating channel, a fan and air connection ducts [41]. The dryer has a relatively high efficiency of 21.24% for this equipment and a short drying time of 3 h compared to a greenhouse with thermal storage of similar surfaces that requires 24 h to dry the product. There is a greenhouse that allows heat to accumulate using a packed bed, which has the function of collecting and emitting heat during the hours of low irradiation of the area. Finally, the air flows into the drying plates where the product is located [41]. Unlike the semi-continuous dryer, the mass flow is lower, being 0.278 kg/s; therefore, the product will take longer to dry. In the region, ladder-type solar dryers are also used, where solar radiation is captured through the glazed sheet, which is converted into heat and raises the temperature inside the chamber to vaporize the water molecules of the product. Air enters by natural convection through holes in the wall, this plot of air is heated through solar radiation and it flows into the grid of the first tray, thus heating the scattered grapes. The hot air passes to a second floor or chamber to dry the fruit; this humid hot air is passed through the other floors successively until it comes out through a small chimney [42].

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