Diseño de sistema de calentamiento de aire y cámara de secado para paja toquilla por recuperación de energía desde hornos artesanales de cocción de la paja

North of Santa Elena, is placed the Centro Artesanal de Procesadores de Paja Toquilla, who, through the Programa de Desarrollo de la Peninsula de Santa Elena, asked to design a system to expedite the drying process of the fiber, to improve product quality and optimize the process. The thermal design and dimensioning of the components of the system was made through an iterative process, to balance the capacity of heat transfer given by the bank of tubes inside the furnace, and the heat flux is required to enter the drying chamber. The rate of drying is done in batches, through direct convection between the fiber and air, which is heated through a type compact heat exchanger. The shape and size of the heat exchanger located inside the furnace are limited to the particular characteristics of it. Derived from the design process, using MATLAB was a computer program to be implemented in similar systems. It was conducted a cost analysis, tool in determining the feasibility of the designe proposed.