Experimental study on effect of circulating air volume on performance of a quasi-double-stage inverter heat pump drying system for treating chili peppers

  • LING Zikang ,
  • ZHU Shiyao ,
  • WU Weidong
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  • (School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China)

Received date: 2025-05-01

  Revised date: 2025-07-29

  Online published: 2026-03-25

Abstract

To effectively improve the drying quality of chili peppers while reducing the drying energy consumption, based on the novel quasi two-stage frequency conversion heat pump drying system, this paper experimentally investigated the impact of the circulating air volume as a key factor on both the drying quality indices of chili peppers and the influence of the system performance indices.Results showed that under the condition of drying temperature (60 ℃) and loading capacity (8.0 kg), with the increase of the circulating air volume from 360 to 720 m3/h, the water evaporation rate of chili pepper was accelerated, the average drying rate was on an increasing trend, and the drying time was shortened.The system energy efficiency ratio (COPsys) showed a general trend of increasing and then fluctuating downward, the specific moisture extraction rate (SMER) increased and then decreased, and the color difference value of dried chili pepper first decreased and then increased.When the circulating air volume was 720 m3/h, the drying rate reached the maximum value of 0.45 g/(g·h).When the circulating air volume was 540 m3/h, the COPsys, the average SMER reached the maximum value of 5.27 and 0.33 kg/(kW·h), respectively.In addition, the optimal color of chili pepper was achieved at this air volume.Therefore, considering energy consumption, drying efficiency and quality,540 m3/h was finally selected as the optimal circulating air volume of pepper heat pump drying.

Cite this article

LING Zikang , ZHU Shiyao , WU Weidong . Experimental study on effect of circulating air volume on performance of a quasi-double-stage inverter heat pump drying system for treating chili peppers[J]. Food and Fermentation Industries, 2026 , 52(5) : 346 -353 . DOI: 10.13995/j.cnki.11-1802/ts.043196

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