TECHNICAL AREA

The invention is about vacuum dryers used frequently in drying process of food, product etc.

The invention is designed especially to provide solar power support to vacuum drying and to minimize power need also through utilizing microwave, infrared, ultraviolet and freeze drying by the required cooler when solar power is not sufficient. With these features the invention is intended to increase energy-saving and capability in industries such as Food, Textile, Chemistry, Machine etc.

THE BASIS OF INVENTION

Drying process takes place in many areas such as food, product, chemistry, textile, aromatic herbs and agriculture. There are plenty of drying processes of different functions made in businesses manufacturing in these areas.

High energy consumption is a matter of fact in these drying processes except the traditional drying (insolation). Methods used in the invention are those known in literature and greatly preferred. These are described in paragraphs below.

Vacuum drying: Used in drying sensitive products. Low atmosphere pressure allows the drying temperature to be kept in lower levels. Vacuum drying can also be used in nonoxygenase drying or drying with different gases. For instance, water boiling temperature under a pressure of 10 kPa is about 46 °C. And this enables water to be vapored off from the product more easily. It's a method often used in chemistry industry and fruit and vegetable drying fields.

Lyophilizing: The product to be dried is first frozen completely. Then the ice crystals formed in the product are sublimated under vacuum atmosphere. For being an application made under low temperatures, it's a drying method that allows for dehydration without harming the product's molecular and physical structure. In literature, only the lyophilizing device and lyophilizing method is mentioned in the USA patent numbered US8272411B2. This product cannot fulfill other drying mechanisms. Infrared radiation: Infrared is applied at 0,5-100 pm wavelengths and used for heating, drying and surface pasteurization of many food substances. Infrared radiation is one of the methods utilized in processing food substances. The heat transfer feature, direct penetration into the products and fast process control of infrared radiation seperates it from other dryers and shows that it's one of the ideal energy sources. For it does no harm to the environment and not affected by climate changes, it's a preferable method in drying area. In literature, fast infrared and convection dryer is mentioned in the USA patent numbered US5867920A. This machine involves other miscellaneous dryer mechanisms and solar power support.

Microwave: In microwave drying process high frequency waves fastly penetrates through the material that's being dried, absorbed and turns into heat energy and this way the water in the material is vaporized. For the heat transfer in microwave drying is from center to surface, the dried food material's inner temperature is more than the surface temperature so there happens a more dynamic heat transfer compared to conventional drying. Drying happens fast in microwave drying and process conditions can be optimized according to the product. With this method it's possible to achieve a more quality final product. In literature, vacuum microwave drying is mentioned in the Chinese patent numbered CN102353238B. The vacuum microwave requires to repeat the same process two or three times in order to complete the drying process.

Ultraviolet drying: Ultraviolet radiation is called the radiation between wavelengths of 100 to 400 pm. Electromagnetic is used in ultraviolet radiation. Monomer coverings and dyeing materials are treated under UV radiation effect. In literature, a new model of ultraviolet drying for washing machines is mentioned in Taiwanese patent numbered TWI262973B. In addition, ultraviolet radiation is involved in drying device sterilization in European patent numbered EP1960585B1 in literature.

Vacuum Solar Dryer: Solar powered (traditional) drying happens in open air and in long time. It takes hours and even days to dry in systems where the air is dried by solar collectors and is sent into the room where the product is dried. The drying air temperature can be up to 60 °C in these collectors. In systems where the drying chamber is under the vacuum pressure and is surrounded by a surface absorbing the sun drying can be completed in minutes after vacuum is made. In literature, only solar power and vacuum drying is integrated in a Chinese patent numbered CN204944069U. This patent enables drying by utilizing the water heated by solar power to heat the drying chamber.

Patents mentioned above enables drying with only one single mechanism. There are no machines utilizing more than one drying mechanism as a hybrid in literature.

Energy-saving and process optimization with hybrid systems happens to be a necessity today. What's intended here is to fulfill this necessity with this solar-powered hybrid vacuum dryer.

DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

The invention will be used to reduce the energy consumption of companies which have to pay high energy amounts for drying and to implement more than one drying processes under low pressure and sterile conditions.

DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

The invention will be described by referring the figures enclosed, this way the characteristics of the invention will be understood and assessed more clearly, but this is not intended to limit the invention with these specific arrangements. Vice versa it’s intended to cover all alternatives, changes and equivalents which can be involved under the area the invention is defined in by the claims enclosed. It must be understood that the shown details are given only for the description of the preferred arrangements of the current invention and presented to provide the most utilizable and clear definition of both the formation of the methods and the rules and conceptual characteristics of the invention. In these figures;

Figure- 1 Schematic view of the set-up of a solar-powered vacuum dryer subject to invention

Figure-2 Inner and outer details of the vacuum dryer (101)

Figure-3 Eocalization of microwave, infrared and ultraviolet bars on the drum with 90 ⁰ angles

Figure-4 Flow-diagram of the working principle of the solar-powered hybrid vacuum dryer

The figures that will help out to understand this invention are numbered as specified in the enclosed figure and they’re given below by their names. REFERENCE NUMBERS

101 Vacuum dryer

102 Cap

103 Belt conveyor

104 Cooling front vacuum unit

105 Discharge tank

106 4 infrared dryer components

1074 microwave components

108 4 ultraviolet components

109 Tempered transparent glass

110 Dryer cabin

111 Dehumidifier

112 Dryer cabin flaps

113 Rotating table

201 Commanding board

301 Vacuum pump

302 Vacuum pipes

401 Angle and Height adjustable carrying leg

501 Cooling unit

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

Solar-powered hybrid vacuum dryer is shown in Figure 1. The solar-powered hybrid vacuum dryer is a machine that can dry through infrared (106), microwave (107), ultraviolet (108) with the sun absorbing surface and plates (101) and through lyophilizing with the cooler it embodies.

The product to be dried will be loaded into the pre-drying unit (104) by an operator. The top cap (102) will be closed. The product will be put to pre-drying and/or cooling process ac cording to the desired drying method within this unit.

The product is taken to the desired temperature and pressure and then begins to flow onto the belt conveyor (103) with the opening of the bottom cap (102) and the help of gravity. In the meanwhile, the desired drying method is activated as hybrid or only as a single mechanism. This process is completely taken under control and automated through commanding board (201) and temperature, pressure and humidity are monitored transiently with the help pf sensors. All the controls and the automation of the system is operated by the commanding board (201) according to the product to be dried.

The product will be dried according to the desired method while passing through the belt conveyor (103) inside the drying cabin in Figure 2. Humidity occurring during this process will be taken into the system by the humidifiers (111). The product which reached to the desired dryness, is flowed from the belt conveyor to the discharge tank (105) with gravity. After the drying is fully completed the product is taken from the discharge tank (105) by an operator. The volume of the discharge tank is preferably the same with the pre-vacuum unit (104) with cooler but capacities can be changed as desired.

What's shown in Figure 4 are 4 microwave, infrared and ultraviolet cylindrical bars. These ray bars are localized to form a 90° angle with each other.

There are drums which can rotate 360 degrees shown in Figure 3 for the Microwave, Infrared and Ultraviolet drying processes. By rotating, these drums enable the heat distribution inside the drying cabin to be homogenous.

When there's need for high temperature treatment for the product to be dried, energysaving is possible drying time is shorter with the help of the sun absorbing drying cabin (110) and the flaps (112) fixed on the drying cabin. For this the drying cabin is surrounded by a tempered transparent glass (109) with a high permeability.

The drying machine can solely make each drying mechanism on its' own and also two or more drying mechanism as a hybrid.

What's shown in Figure 4 is the flow diagram of the working principle of the solar- powered hybrid vacuum dryer. The machine is operated by the commanding board at first step. At second step, the product to be dried is loaded into the vacuum unit with cooler and the cap is closed. For the third step, cooling and /or vacuuming is applied to the product. For fourth, drying mechanisms are opted out for single or multiple. For the fifth, the product is treated under drying process. As the drying product goes on belt conveyor, it's flowed onto the discharge tank. And for last (sixth), the dried product is discharged from the discharge tank.