Innovative Solar Air Dryer Designs for Agricultural Products-A Review

Abstract

Indeed, agricultural technological development plays a crucial role in the agricultural commercialization and socio-economic transformation of India. Enhancing farming through solar dryers has been considered to be a key strategy for enhancing food security and greater socioeconomic change. Drying removes the majority of the product’s moisture content; it is a crucial post-harvest technique for agricultural goods that may increase quality, decrease losses during storage, and save transportation costs. The literature study provides evidence that solar dryers that use phase change material and operate in indirect or mixed modes are more effective than direct drying solar dryers in drying agricultural goods. This review study’s main objective is to give an overview of the recent developments in solar dryer technology achieved by different researchers. Innovative solar dryer designs for drying agricultural products are reviewed in this present work. A thorough analysis of the design, operation, uses, and comparison of solar dryers is conducted. The solar dryers design their modifications and different techniques to improve thermal performance are studied thoroughly. Hybrid solar dryer with CPC, ETC, photovoltaic technology can work as an independent unit and proves the better thermal performance dryer unit as compared to conventional dryers. The new improvements to hybrid dryers are also discussed in detail. Present study will be helpful for developing an economical dryer with variety of drying parameters and different agricultural products.