Technicoeconomic optimization of a hybrid agricultural drier using supplement and solar energy

Solar energy installations are very expensive, what carries out to research the simple and economic means. However the real problem of the industrial utilization of the solar energy is not posed in these terms. Better adapted solutions are generally not simple, and are sometimes independent of prioritised research of the best reverent price, will that these considerations are only developed on few examples as the solar heating of building. The drying, in general, is one of processes that was thermally most studied, wasn't economically developed. In this research work, we are interested in evaluating the economic profitability of a hybrid drier installation while leading a comparative study between two total costs. -The first one is relative to hybrid installation (solar-fossil) where air collectors and stock, which are considered as a solar size, were modelled. -The second one, used as a reference, is relative to the fossil dryer installation. It must satisfy the same energy demand than the first one. For this, we must establish the general equation of assessment of values relative to the drying operation; the energy value is not necessarily currency, but it could be done by any unspecified scale of reference. We retained that of thermodynamic origin. The object of these methods, when it acts only on one optimisation constraint, is to minimize the function-objective, organized by the total cost of the project, expressed in a certain domains of value (currency, energy). This total cost being given by the balanced sum of the investments and exploitation costs, considering a certain mode of calculation of depreciation over a supposed lifespan. In this paper, we mention three economic methods, only one will be used to evaluate the optimal dimensions of a hybrid installation dryer destined to agricultural products.(Author)