Indirect Solar Dryer: A Review

Abstract

Various agricultural products such as Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, and medicinal Herbs etc. requires drying to make them available for long period of time. Usually the methods being used for preservation of these products requires fossil fuel and open sun drying which has its own disadvantages. In developing countries fossil fuel availability still remains a big issue therefore solar drying can be a viable alternate solution for fossil fuels. Also the solar drying technique is not only dependent on solar energy for its functioning, rather its performance can be enhanced by incorporating various systems and techniques. In this paper various types of indirect solar drying techniques have been reviewed and emphasis is given to the dryers integrated with latent heat storage unit. Design and Analysis of Indirect solar dryer used for miscellaneous applications such as water heating, space heating and other industrial purposes have been presented in this paper.