Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Solar Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener Experimental investigation of an active direct and indirect solar dryer with sensible heat storage for camel meat drying in Saharan environment Wafa Braham Chaouch a,b , Abdellah Khellaf c , Ahmed Mediani b , Mohamed El Amine Slimani d, ⁎ , Akil Loumani b , Abdelkader Hamid a a Département de Mécanique, Faculté de Technologie, Université Saad Dahleb, 09000 Blida, Algeria b Unité de Recherche en Energies Renouvelables en Milieu Saharien (URER/MS), Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables (CDER), 478 Adrar, Algeria c Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables (CDER), 16340 Algiers, Algeria d Department of Energetic and Fluid Mechanics, Faculty of Physics, University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB), 16111 Algiers, Algeria ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Solar drying Forced convection Heat storage Camel meat Saharan environment Meat quality ABSTRACT An indirect and direct forced convection solar dryer integrated with pebble sensible heat storage medium was developed and investigated under Saharan prevailing weather conditions. The setup consists of a direct chamber superimposed to an indirect drying one. A first pebble bed is placed in a plenum, below the direct drying chamber, a second in a cavity below the solar collector. The sensible heat storage system maintained the thermal efficiency of the solar collector until one hour after sunset and enhanced it by 28%. The thermal efficiency of the direct chamber was enhanced by 11.8%. Experiments of drying camel meat without salting were carried out under the different climatic conditions of July and November months. The drying kinetic evolution was in- vestigated under each experiment conditions. The drying is faster in July than in November. Several mathe- matical models were tested to describe the best, in terms of statistical parameters, the drying behavior of camel meat slices. Logarithmic model and Midilli-Kucruk model are respectively the most suitable for July and November experiments. The average of indirect drying efficiency over diurnal period reached 18.34% in July and 15.52% in November. The direct drying efficiency reached the average of 10.35% and 7.88% respectively in July and November. In order to preserve the protein rate of the dried camel meat, salting which inhibits decay, pretreatment usually reserved for meat products before drying has been suppressed. Microbiological and phy- sicochemical monitoring has been carried out to ensure the final quality of the dried product. The results ob- tained, compared to an open sun-dried samples were satisfactory according to the norms imposed by the Algerian legislation. 1. Introduction Abundant, inexhaustible, and nonpolluting, renewable energies are obviously an alternative of choice to fossil energies. Peoples of the tropics and semi-tropics use solar energy for thermal applications, such as cooking, heating, and drying (Bal et al., 2010). The purpose of drying products is to reduce their moisture content. The decay caused by growth and reproduction of microorganisms is inhibited by the removal of moisture which minimizes many of the moisture-mediated dete- riorative reactions (Kamil sacilik, 2007). In developing countries, the popular, efficient and economical method used for drying and preser- ving agricultural food and many other products is the open sun drying (Kumar et al., 2016). This traditional method of drying has many dis- advantages. It can cause not negligible losses during natural sun drying because of various influences, such as rodents, birds, insects, rain, storms, and microorganisms (El-Sebaii et al., 2002). To overcome these inconveniences and ensure better control of solar drying aspects, dif- ferent researches have been conducted over decades to develop solar dryers. The arrangement of the system components and mode of solar heat utilization categorizes the solar dryers as direct, indirect and mixed modes (Vijayan et al., 2016). Solar dryers are classified passive in the case of natural air circulation, forced if the latter is controlled by the use of a fan to pump air through the dryer. Prakash and Kumar (2013) reported in a review on recent researches that compared to natural circulation type solar dryers, forced convection (active solar dryers) are very effective and more controllable. This choice is all the more motivating as the electrical energy required to power the fan is low. Transmitting much thermal energy as possible to the air, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2018.09.037 Received 5 April 2018; Received in revised form 31 July 2018; Accepted 13 September 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. Fax: +213 021 24 73 44. E-mail addresses: mslimani@usthb.dz, slimani_01@yahoo.fr (M.E.A. Slimani). Solar Energy 174 (2018) 328–341 0038-092X/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T