Review of Solar Dryer for Drying Agricultural Products

In many countries of the world, the use of solar thermal systems in the agricultural area to dry vegetables, fruits, coffee and other crops has shown to be practical, economical and the responsible approach environmentally. Solar drying systems to dry food and other crops can improve the quality of the product, while reducing wasted produce. Under the module of Advance topics in mechanical engineering projects, we were assigned to design the low cost vegetable dryer. The aim of our project is to determine the drying curve and the change rate of drying by solar energy by taking green beans or peas using an indirect solar dryer operating in forced convection. Solar dryer is not only a process, but it is a technology that helps to obtain products that are better in color, flavor and nutrient content than the open sun dried products. Using this technology farmer can take better price for their products, because the solar dried products are the international standard of market in quality.