Environmental and economic analysis of hybrid greenhouse solar dryer: A Review

Abstract

Zero hunger is one of the goals out of 17 sustainable development goal set by United Nations for 2030. As the population is growing at a rapid rate so the demand of food will also increase. Solar dryers are considered as the sustainable solutions for conserving the food for longer duration. The enviro-economic analysis becomes necessary to check the impact of developed dryer on environment and its economic viability. This review article focuses on the environmental and economic analysis of hybrid greenhouse solar dryers. The dryers although operates using the solar energy but still in case of hybrid dryers some other devices are also used which emits CO2 and other non-environmental friendly gases during their use or disposal. The impact of a solar dryer on the environment is very low but still, it is necessary to check the impact. The economy is another factor that is kept in mind while developing the dryers. It is observed that the cost of dryer and its impact on environment increases with the increase in floor area of dryer. The hybrid dryers are usually costly due to use of various additional devices but gives better performance than passive and active dryers. The payback time of hybrid dryers are almost same as active dryers that is about 1-2 years, thus hybrid dryers can be developed commercially to get more profit. The parameters which are considered during environmental and economic analysis are discussed in the paper. The paper presents a way to carry out the environmental and economic analysis of hybrid dryers.