Abstract
The aim of the study was to analyze the drying process of green pea using different dryers and different parameters of drying, and evaluate the specific energy consumption, energy efficiency, drying efficiency, thermal efficiency, and greenhouse gas (CO2) emission of used drying method. The drying methods included convective, infrared, microwave, convective-vacuum, convective-infrared, convective-microwave, convective-rotary dryer, infrared-rotary dryer, and microwave-dryer. Results indicated the lowest specific energy consumption for the microwave dryer working at the power of 810 W (12.15 MJ/kg); whereas the highest specific energy consumption (215.45 MJ/kg) was observed in the convective drying (40 °C, 1.5 m/s). The highest energy efficiency, drying efficiency, and thermal efficiency (57.98 %, 65.11 %, and 57.98 %, respectively) were obtained by the microwave working at the power of 810 W. The energy, thermal, and drying efficiencies showed an increasing trend with elevating the temperature, microwave power, and infrared power. Furthermore, the analysis showed that by increasing the air temperature, microwave, infrared powers, and rotation speed, and reducing the inlet air velocity, the CO2 generation was decreased. The lowest CO2 amount (5.5 kg/kg water) was produced during the microwave drying at the power of 810 W