Environmental Sustainability and Exergetic Based Sustainability Indicators for Heat Exchanger-Evacuated Tube Assisted Drying System (HE-ETADS)

Exergetic based sustainability indicators of advanced Heat Exchanger-Evacuated Tube Assisted Drying System (HE-ETADS) are evaluated in this research. Exergetic based sustainability indicators include environmental sustainability index, environmental destruction coefficient and environmental effect factor. Experiments are conducted on advanced drying system for 03 selected crops to check environmental suitability. Crops of hygroscopic nature i.e., garlic clove, banana slices, and peppermint leaves, are evaluated. Throughout the experiment, the highest drying cabin temperature is 87 degrees C and 61 degrees C in Case-I and Case-II. Novel drying system decreases the drying period of garlic clove, banana slices, and peppermint leaves by 45%, 43%, and 62%, respectively. The system mitigates 77, 45.52, and 126 tons of CO2 & 42.68, 24.62, and 39.21 tons of CO2 in its lifetime for Case-I and Case-II for garlic cloves, banana slices and peppermint leave correspondingly. Energy payback time for garlic cloves, banana slices, and peppermint leaves is 0.85, 1.1 and 2.45 years less in Case-I compared to Case-II. The drying system is more sustainable in Case-I, with a higher Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) value of 2.92, while in Case-II, the drying system has a lower value (1.25).