Performance evaluation of a cabinet solar dryer for drying red pepper in Bangladesh

A cabinet type solar dryer was designed and fabricated over a collector and dryer area of 4.00 m2 and 7.5 m2 respectively for the geographical condition of Bangladesh. Red pepper was used to test the performance of the dryer. The upper tray and lower tray pepper drying needed 36 and 41 h to reduce moisture from 73% (wet basis) to 10% (wet basis) respectively and found 9 kg dried pepper from 30 kg fresh red ripe pepper. In contrast, open sun drying needed 85 h to reduce moisture from 73% (wet basis) to 11% (wet basis) and produced 2.43 kg dried pepper from 8 kg red ripe pepper. The average global radiation was about 133 W/m2 while the flux incidence and flux absorbed on collector was about 128 W/m2 and 103 W/m2 respectively. The average collector and dryer efficiency was about 48% and 34% respectively. The average exergy efficiency was obtained 63%. The average rate of top, bottom and side collector loss was 37 W/m2, 20 W/m2 and 3 W/m2 respectively. The upper tray, lower tray and open sun pepper seed germination was 76%, 81% and 85% respectively (P≥0.01). The redness value of lower tray pepper (a*=27.1) was higher followed by upper tray (a*=24.7) and open sun pepper powder (a*=21.1), which means direct exposure of sunlight diminishes the quality of pepper colour. The redness value of fabricated solar drying was significantly (P≤0.01) higher than that of open sun drying

Battery Management, Key Technologies, Methods, Issues, and Future Trends of Electric Vehicles: A Pathway toward Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

Recently, electric vehicle (EV) technology has received massive attention worldwide due to its improved performance efficiency and significant contributions to addressing carbon emission problems. In line with that, EVs could play a vital role in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, EVs face some challenges such as battery health degradation, battery management complexities, power electronics integration, and appropriate charging strategies. Therefore, further investigation is essential to select appropriate battery storage and management system, technologies, algorithms, controllers, and optimization schemes. Although numerous studies have been carried out on EV technology, the state-of-the-art technology, progress, limitations, and their impacts on achieving SDGs have not yet been examined. Hence, this review paper comprehensively and critically describes the various technological advancements of EVs, focusing on key aspects such as storage technology, battery management system, power electronics technology, charging strategies, methods, algorithms, and optimizations. Moreover, numerous open issues, challenges, and concerns are discussed to identify the existing research gaps. Furthermore, this paper develops the relationship between EVs benefits and SDGs concerning social, economic, and environmental impacts. The analysis reveals that EVs have a substantial influence on various goals of sustainable development, such as affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, industry, economic growth, and climate actions. Lastly, this review delivers fruitful and effective suggestions for future enhancement of EV technology that would be beneficial to the EV engineers and industrialists to develop efficient battery storage, charging approaches, converters, controllers, and optimizations toward targeting SDGs