Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Applications of solar energy based drying technologies in various industries

– A review
Abhay Lingayat a, Ramakrishna Balijepalli b, V.P. Chandramohan c, *
a
Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Maharashtra 400076, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, RGM College of Engineering and Technology, Nandyal, Andhrapradesh 518501, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, Telangana State 506 004, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Drying of materials is an important and essential mechanism during the production process in industries. Drying
Industrial drying fruits and vegetables is an ancient method used for food preservation. Apart from the agricultural sector, there
Food drying are many industries such as automobile, rubber, paper and pulp, sugarcane, wastewater treatment, lignite/coal,
Solar drying
etc. require heat energy for drying during production processes. Conventional energy sources such as coal,
Solar energy
Drying technologies
natural gas, and electricity are used for the heat energy required for drying. Due to the increase in cost and
pollution involved in conventional sources, solar energy-based drying systems can be encouraged. This review
work provides a detailed analysis of solar-based dryers used in various industries namely agricultural, marine,
tea, sugarcane, automobile, rubber, pulp, and paper industries. In addition, the utilization of solar energy for
sewage drying, industrial waste drying, and lignite coal drying for power generation are reviewed. Different
types of dryers presently available in the market are also discussed in the review work. Various parameters used
for the performance of the dryers such as drying rate, amount of energy required for drying, collector efficiency,
drying efficiency, specific energy consumption have been discussed. Economic, environmental, and social aspects
of solar dryers are also presented, and recommendations are given in the paper.

drying. Thermal energy is a source mostly used for the drying process.
1. Introduction Most of the time, conventional energy sources such as fossil fuel and
electric energy were used for drying. Varieties of dryers available in the
In the present scenario, energy security is one of the important areas market with different heat supply modes and energy sources as listed in
where the world is continuously looking for various methods and Table 1.
technologies. The main motive of energy researchers is, reducing the Consumption of fossil fuels greatly influences the environment as
consumption of energy and finding alternate sources. Encouraging they emit toxic gases. The heat energy consumed during the drying
renewable energies as alternative options reduce hydrocarbon and other process is about 12% to 40% of total industrial energy consumption in
toxic emissions. Drying is one of the energy intensive processes which is the developed countries, which employs 20–70% of the total cost of
used in many industries such as agriculture, sugarcane, tea, marine, production depends on the type of industries. (Bennamoun and Bel­
automobile, paper, rubber, pulp and paper, sewage and industrial waste, hamri, 2003; Pirasteh et al., 2014a). A natural source - solar energy
lignite and coal, etc. Drying played an important role in the evaporation could play a major role in drying processes and it minimizes the con­
of moisture from industrial waste and sewage which can be used as sumption of non-renewable sources by 27% to 80% (Prakash et al.,
fertilizer or for landfilling purposes (Mathioudakis et al., 2009). 2018). Therefore, solar energy needs to be encouraged for drying ap­
The agricultural sector is a major sector where drying has been plications. It is a clean, sustainable, economical, and environmentally
extensively used in preserving cereals, fruits and vegetables. Moisture is friendly energy source.
the main substance in the wet materials that causes the microbial and Open sun drying (OSD) is a traditional method to dry crops, fruits,
bacterial reaction which leads the material spoilage. The reduction of vegetables, and other products since ancient times. But it has some
the moisture content (MC) up to a safe level, reduces the growth and disadvantages such as large surface area, low quality on the dried
reproduction of micro-organisms and it can be achievable only by product due to contamination of dirt and dust, unavailability of required

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (V.P. Chandramohan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2021.05.058
Received 16 March 2021; Received in revised form 16 May 2021; Accepted 19 May 2021
0038-092X/© 2021 International Solar Energy Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Abhay Lingayat, Solar Energy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2021.05.058
A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Nomenclature SEC Specific energy consumption (kJ/kg)

TES Thermal energy storage
Abbreviations T Temperature (K)
A Area of collector (m2) Td Drying temperature (K)
Cpa\ Specific heat (J/ kg K) ts Save in time
db Dry basis wb Wet basis
DSD Direct solar dryer
Ex Exergy Greeks
HSD Hybrid solar dryer ηo Collector efficiency
Hfuel Heat value of fuel (kW/ kg) ηd Drying efficiency
h Specific humidity (kg/ kg of dry air) Subscripts
hfg Enthalpy of evaporation (kJ/kg) a air
has Specific humidity as saturated condition (kg/ kg of dry air) atm Atmospheric
ISD Indirect solar dryer c collector
I Incident solar radiation (W/m2) d Dry, dryer
IP Improvement potential dci Drying chamber inlet
M, m Mass (kg) dco Drying chamber outlet
MC Moisture content (kg per kg) do Dryer outlet
ṁ Mass flow rate (kg/s) f final
mm Mass of material (kg) i Initial, inlet
OSD Open sun drying l loss
Pt Total energy input (kW) in inlet
PCM Phase change material m Material
Pf Fan power w water
Qd Energy for drying (kJ)
SAC Solar air collector

The present review provides a thorough analysis of solar-based

Table 1 drying systems in agricultural and non-agricultural industries. Other
Various methods involve in the drying operation. industries can aware of the importance of solar drying so that they can
Category Method and range
also utilize this free energy. Therefore, the objective of this work is, (i) to
review comprehensively the studies available on solar drying systems
Mode of heat supply Conduction, convection, radiation, infrared, dielectric
which are used in different industries, iii) to study different types of solar
heat sources
Energy source Electricity, coal, oil, natural gas, biomass, solar energy dryers, their design details and performance parameters involved, (iv) to
Moisture content in the 1 to 96 kg per kg of wet basis get a collection of data in a single article by providing significant con­
material clusions from the solar drying method used in different industries which
Drying temperature 30 ◦ C – 200 ◦ C may help the future researchers, (v) to review the economic, environ­
Pressure Vacuum to high-pressure level
Capacity kilogram to tones of production
mental, and social aspects of solar energy-based drying technologies and
Shape, size, and structure Powder, granules, film, solid material, crystalline, vi) to provide important information and points for future research in
fabric, cardboard, fiber, etc. this specific area of solar drying.
Solar thermal energy for drying is an application of renewable en­
ergy that can be used by industries and also by farmers. Hence presented
drying temperature, larger drying time for high MC product, contami­
review paper helps the industries, farmers and researchers for the se­
nation by birds and animals, etc. Varieties of other solar-based drying
lection of appropriate dryers and it gives information on where solar
systems are available which can overcome the negatives of the OSD
thermal energy is used for drying, therefore, this topic is of potential
method (and therefore, the OSD method is not discussed much in this
interest to them. The article is structured as: Section 2 presents a brief
review). These methods provide the drying process more efficiently with
report on the classification of solar drying systems based on their design,
high-quality dried products.
structure, type of material used for dryer, material to be dried, etc.,
In the area of solar drying, many experimental, theoretical, and
Section 3 provides the different performance parameters of solar dryers.
numerical studies are available which shows the importance of solar-
Section 4 gives information on different sectors where solar drying is
based drying processes in agricultural as well as non-agricultural sec­
employed. The economic, environmental, and social aspects of solar
tors. Also, many reviews were reported by researchers on different
energy are discussed in Section 5. Section 6 provides few recommen­
methods of drying in the agricultural sector (Fudholi et al., 2015; Pan­
dations on drying systems and Section 7 furnishes the conclusions.
war et al., 2012). There were few review works on software tools used
for drying problems (Malekjani and Jafari, 2018; Singh et al., 2015).
2. Classification of solar drying systems
However, despite having the huge potential of solar thermal energy,
there is a lack of review work focusing on the integration of solar
A variety of dryers were noticed from different studies. Generally,
thermal energy with industrial drying process applications. No review
these dryers are categorized based on their design, material used for the
work was solely contributed to solar drying processes used in different
setup, type of assisted auxiliary heat source, the material used for the
industries. Solar dryers are commonly used in the agricultural sector
drying, material used for solar thermal energy storage (TES), etc. By
which is mentioned in lots of studies but the available review works are
considering these mentioned categories, a broad classification of dryers
very few in other industries such as marine, tea, sugarcane, automobile,
is drawn and shown in Fig. 1. All the solar dryer systems are explained
rubber, pulp and paper, sewage, and industrial waste, lignite/coal.
very briefly in the following sections.

2
A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 1. Broad classification of various types of solar dryers.

2.1. Open sun drying (OSD) 2.2.1. Direct solar dryers (DSD)
The DSD is one of the commonly used alternate ways of OSD method.
The OSD is one of the commonly used methods of drying all over the In this method, materials are kept in the chamber or in the space where
world. In OSD, the material is spread over the ground or kept on the they are exposed to the solar radiation transmitted through the trans­
trays, floor and allowed to dry throughout the day by exposing it to open parent glazing. Transparent glazing can be any material, such as glass,
air and direct radiation of the sun (Muhlbauer, 1986). The risks involved plastic cover, polycarbonate material, etc. The DSD can be categorized
in the OSD are; damage of material by birds, insects, and animals, as cabinet dryer and greenhouse dryer based on their design and con­
quality degradation because of direct exposure of sun, dirt, dust, at­ struction and it can work in passive as well as active modes (Sontakke
mospheric pollution, quality degradation due to rain, air humidity dew, and Salve, 2015).
over-drying, insufficient drying, etc. (Arunsandeep et al., 2018). Due to Cabinet dryer is a simple box type with transparent glazing for small-
these disadvantages involved in the OSD, people are searching for an batch drying as shown in Fig. 2. For mass drying, greenhouse dryers
alternate solar-based system that can partially control the input pa­ have been widely used. Various types of greenhouse dryers are reported
rameters so that a quality product can be improved. in the literature and can be categorized based on the type of floor, type of
glazing material, northern wall condition, dryer construction. The floor
2.2. Solar dryers used in greenhouse dryers can be made of concrete and sometimes with
a black coat. Polycarbonate, polyethylene materials, or PVC film-coated
Some solar dryers maintain the controlled conditions required for fiberglass are used for glazing material (Elhage et al., 2018). A green­
drying such as temperature, velocity, humidity, etc. which are difficult house dryer can be a single or double sloped roof, dome-shaped or
in OSD. These controlled solar dryers are otherwise classified as indirect
solar dryers (ISD) and direct solar dryers (DSD). It gives quality end
products, low drying time, and dust-free products. These may be of
natural convection type (passive method) (Lingayat et al., 2020a;
Lingayat et al., 2017) or forced convection type (active method) (El-
Sebaii and Shalaby, 2013). The overall efficiency of passive dryers varies
from 20 to 40% which depends on the type of material, moisture con­
tent, temperature, velocity, and humidity of air (Udomkun et al., 2020).
Most of the researchers are in favor of forced convection type dryers as
they give better thermal efficiency and provide controlled drying con­
ditions than natural convection dryers (Mustayen et al., 2014). Solar
dryers can be provided with a TES system such as latent heat (Benli and
Durmuş, 2009) or sensible heat storage (Ayyappan et al., 2016) unit to
continue the drying during off sunshine hours.
Fig. 2. Cabinet or box type solar dryer.

3
A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

parabolic-shaped. The North wall provides in the greenhouse can be 3.1. Amount of water removed from the product and energy requirement
insulated or non-insulated. Singh et al., (2018) provided a detailed re­
view of various types of greenhouse dryers and suggested few modifi­ The mass of water removed from the material (Mw) during the drying
cations. These dryers can provide a temperature in the range of 30 to process can be estimated as
60 ◦ C which is sufficient to dry fruits like apple, mango, papaya,
Mw = mi (MCi − MCf )/(100− MCf (1)
strawberry, various types of vegetables, and other products like meat,
marine products (Mezrhab et al., 2010; Rathore and Panwar, 2010;
Where mi is the initial mass of material in kg, MC is the moisture content
Singh et al., 2018).
of the material on a wet basis. MC in the product can be estimated using,
(Chandramohan, 2016a; Chandramohan and Talukdar, 2013).
2.2.2. Indirect solar dryers (ISD)
In this method, the product is not exposed directly to sun radiation MC, wetbasis(wb), MCi = (Mi − Md )/Mi (2)
but convective heat transfer between heated air and wet material is
responsible for moisture removal (Lingayat et al., 2018; Lingayat et al., MC, drybasis(db), MCi = (Mi − Md )/Md (3)
2020c). Moisture removal rate and heat transfer can be controlled in a
better way than DSD dryers. For improved airflow, natural convection Where Mi is the initial mass and Md is the mass of the completely dried
systems can be replaced with forced convection systems (Mohanraj and product in kg.
Chandrasekar, 2009). Lingayat et al., (2020b) provided a detailed re­ The initial MC of crops is generally estimated by an ASTM standard
view of various types of ISDs and also suggested various possible loca­ by heating them for 24 h at 105 ◦ C in a hot air oven (Chandramohan and
tions for the TES system. A lot of researches have been reported to Talukdar, 2016).
increase the thermal performance of ISD. Some of the advanced tech­ The amount of heat required for the evaporation (Eheat) of moisture
niques can make the ISD more efficient and completely renewable by from the material can be calculated by the heat of evaporation by
assisting with TES system with air heat exchanger, a solar water heater considering the humidity of drying air and can be mentioned as,
with water–air heat exchanger and all these will be discussed in Section Eheat = ṁa (hdo − hatm ) (4)
4.
Where ṁa is the mass flow rate of air in kg/s, hdo and hatm are specific
2.2.3. Mixed-mode type solar dryer humidity at the dryer outlet and ambient in kg/kg of dry air,
Mixed-mode drying setups work on the joined principle of DSD and respectively.
ISD methods. The dryer is provided with a transparent drying chamber Also, the total energy needed to evaporate the moisture (Qd) can be
and solar air heater for hot air generation. The drying time required to estimated by adding the sensible and latent heats (Ayensu, 1997),
achieve the MC is less in mixed mode solar dryers compared with ISD
Qd = mm Cpm (Td − Ta ) + mw hfg (5)
because of the transparent drying chamber and solar air heater (Dhal­
samant et al., 2018; ELkhadraoui et al., 2015).
Where, mw and Cpm are mass and specific heat of the material in kJ/(kg
K), Ta is surrounding temperature, Td is drying temperature, hfg repre­
2.2.4. Hybrid solar dryers (HSD)
sents the enthalpy of evaporation (kJ/kg) at Td.
In hybrid solar drying (HSD), auxiliary heating sources are used to
dry the product during an off-sunshine hour and cloudy days or to
3.2. Efficiencies, save in drying time and specific energy consumption
maintain the constant temperature because of continuous fluctuation in
solar radiation. Auxiliary heating sources such as an electric heater,
The main function of solar dryers is to harness solar thermal energy
biomass heater, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) heater, mechanical heat
using solar air collectors (SAC) or transparent cover sheets. The overall
pump, etc. are used as a backup for thermal energy generation (Hossain
efficiency (ηo) of the collector can be calculated (Esen et al., 2009b),
et al., 2008; Mishra et al., 2020a; Yahya et al., 2017). This dryer is useful
for drying high MC material as it protects the food from microbial attack ηo = mfluid Cpa (Tc − Ti )/Ac I (6)
because it is dried continuously (Mohanraj, 2014; Prasad et al., 2007;
Thanaraj et al., 2007). The only disadvantage of the system is, it involves Where, mfluid is the mass flow rate of fluid in kg/s, Ti and Tc are tem­
more manufacturing and maintenance costs and therefore it requires a peratures of air at inlet and outlet of the collector, Ac is the area of the
specially designed structure. collector in m2 and I is incident solar radiation (W/m2).
Solar air collector (SAC) is the most important components in ISD, One of the performance parameters of the dryer is, save in drying
mixed-mode solar dryers and HSD. Some researchers reported various time (ts) which gives the drying time of ISD compared to OSD. It is
methods to increase the thermal performance of SAC and suggested calculated by,
different designs (Ozgen et al., 2009; Lingayat et al., 2020b). Esen et al. tOSD − tSD
(2009a) suggested advanced modeling methods for its performance in­ ts = × 100% (7)
tOSD
vestigations such as artificial and wavelet neural network. The thermal
storage system is also one of the important components in solar drying Where tosd and tsd are drying time in the open sun and solar dryer,
systems which stores the heat during peak sunshine hour which can be respectively.
utilized after the sunset. Many researchers reported different methods to Drying efficiency (ηd) is the ratio of energy observed by the wet
store the solar thermal energy in the form of sensible heat or latent heat material for removing the moisture to the total energy incident on the
(Esen, 2000; Esen and Ayhan, 1996; Esen and Durmus, 1998; Esen and collector. It can be estimated as,
Yuksel, 2013).
Qd
Fornaturalconvection, ηd = (8)
Ac I
3. Various drying parameters involved in solar drying
Qd
Different types of solar dryers, as discussed in the previous section, Forforcedconvection, ηd = (9)
Ac I + Pf
have been used to generate the required air temperature for the drying.
This section provides some basic theory involved during the drying Q
Forthehybridsolardryer, ηd = ( ) d (10)
process which is necessary to analyze the dryer performance and drying Ac I + Pf + (mfuel Hfuel )
behavior of the material.

4
A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Where Pf is the fan power in kW, the product of mfuel and Hfuel is the including renewable energy but its contribution is very small compared
energy supplied by the auxiliary heating source. to other sources (Monthly Energy Review January 2020, U. S. Energy
Pick-up efficiency (ηp) indicates the moisture removal capacity of the Information Administration, 2020). Among the 35–38% of total energy
drying air from the material and it is estimated as, industrial consumers, 11.5% of industries need temperature less than
150 ◦ C, 8.5% industries require a temperature between 150 ◦ C and
ηp =
hdo − hi
(11) 400 ◦ C, and remaining industries need more than 400 ◦ C (Knaack et al.,
has − hi 2018; The International Energy Agency (IEA) (2018)). This pattern of
energy consumption is almost similar in all industries all over the world
Where hdo, hi and has are specific humidity of air at dryer outlet, inlet and (Mujumdar, 2006). The various industries and their thermal energy
saturated condition. requirement for solar drying are discussed in this section.
Specific energy consumption (SEC) (kJ/kg) is the ratio of total en­
ergy input (Pt) to the quantity of water removed from the wet product.
4.1. Agricultural and food industry applications
Pt
SEC = (12)
mw Water content in the food material causes its spoilage due to micro-
organisms and bacteria growth. Drying restricts the growth and repro­
duction of microorganisms to avoid spoilage, and also it is used to
3.3. Exergy parameters
reduce the weight and volume of the material which saves the trans­
portation cost (Chandramohan, 2016b). Dehydration in agricultural
The maximum amount of available energy from the system is called
products needs a large amount of heat which can be supplied by har­
exergy. The amount of exergy which is destroyed when entering into the
nessing solar thermal energy. The utilization of solar energy also helps to
dryer is called irreversibility (Esen et al., 2007b). It is useful to find the
reduce conventional energy sources. Many researchers provided a re­
available energy at various regions within the dryer. The exergy values
view on different types of dryers and carried out mathematical,
were estimated with the help of a generalized energy balance equation
analytical, and experimental studies for thermal analysis, and proposed
(Celma and Cuadros, 2009) and the final expression of exergy (Ex) was
different techniques for enhancing the dryer efficiency (El-sebaii and
reduced after imposing assumptions (Tambunan et al., 2010) and is
Shalaby, 2012; Lamidi et al., 2019). Various conventional solar air
mentioned as,
heaters and their design and performance parameters are reported in the
[ ( )]
T literature (Ekechukwu and Norton, 1999; Lingayat et al., 2020c;
Ex = ṁa Cpa (T − T∞ ) − T∞ ln (13) Mohana et al., 2020). A detailed review of the effect of various influ­
T∞
encing parameters has been discussed by Mishra et al. (2020b).
The exergy inflow (Exdci) and exergy outflow (Exdco) of the system are Lakshmi et al., (2018) found the drying kinetics of black turmeric
mentioned as, using a mixed-mode forced convection solar dryer integrated with a TES
( )
Tdci system. The moisture removal rate of turmeric has been examined by
Exdci = ṁa Cpdai (Tdci − T∞ ) − T∞ ln (14) comparing the results with OSD. Two sets of thin layered black turmeric
T∞
samples (each 200 g) were chosen for the investigation. The first set was
( )
Tdco placed in a solar dryer and another was placed for OSD. A shell and tube
Exdco = ṁa Ccpdo (Tdco − T∞ ) − T∞ ln (15) heat exchanger TES system was coupled with the solar dryer to dry the
T∞
samples during night times. 35 kg of paraffin wax is used as an energy
Where Tdci and Tdco are the temperatures at the inlet and outlet of the storage material. It was observed that the discharge air temperature at
dryer. the outlet of the system was 6 – 10 ◦ C more than the ambient temper­
The exergy input to SAC (Zhu et al., 2018) was estimated using: ature at night times. Turmeric was dried from an initial MC of 73.4% to
[ ( )4 ( )] 8.5% (wb) using a solar dryer and OSD which took 18.50 h and 46.50 h,
Exin = 1 +
1 Ta
−
4Ta
IA (16) respectively. The specific energy consumption of the product to dry was
3 Tsun 3Tsun estimated and is 5.21 kWh/kg per kg of moisture. The average collector
efficiency and overall drying efficiencies were found to be 25.6% and
Where, Tsun is the apparent black body temperature of the sun, which is 12%, respectively. The quality of fresh and dried turmeric was tested
about 5770 K (Kalogirou et al., 2016) and found better results for solar dried turmeric in terms of color,
The exergy losses are determined using exergy inflow (Exi) and phenolic content, and flavonoid content. Similarly, there were other
exergy outflow (Exo) as mentioned below, studies found with solar dryers, and the products dried are; red chili
∑ ∑ (Ndukwu et al., 2017; Rabha et al., 2017), bitter gourd (Zachariah et al.,
Exl = Exi − Exo (17)
2020), garlic (Shringi et al., 2014), apricot (Baniasadi et al., 2017),
The exergy efficiency (ηEx) is estimated by, apple (Atalay et al., 2017) and orange (Atalay, 2019). Each studies’ data
such as drying capacity, final mass, initial and final MCs, average
ηEx = (Exi − Exl )/Exi = 1 − (Exl /Exi ) (18) ambient and drying air temperatures, drying time, energy storage ma­
The improvement potential, IP is estimated as, terial, total and specific energy consumptions, the mass of water evap­
oration, dryer, collector, and exergy efficiencies are mentioned in
IP = (1 − ηEx )Exl (19) Table 2.
It is observed from Table 2 that the highest drying air temperature
4. Solar dryers in different industries (65 ◦ C) was noticed at Lakshmi et al., (2018) among all other studies.
The overall drying efficiency (ηd) is just 12% as mentioned in Table 2
According to International Energy Outlook (IEO), U. S. Energy In­ because of plastic sheet is used as a collector cover instead of anti-
formation Administration, (2019), 50% of the heat generated is refluxing glazed glass. The transmissivity of glazed glass is 0.9 there­
consumed by industries, 46% of heat is consumed by space and water fore it can transmit 90% of the total incident solar radiation. Also, the
heating and only 4% of heat is consumed for agricultural greenhouse glazed glass can transmit the solar heat flux in one way only. It cannot
heating. Energy consumption in the sectors namely industrial, trans­ allow the reflected solar radiation from the absorber plate to the outside
portation, residential, and commercial increases day by day due to an atmosphere. There is a possibility of improvement in collector design as
increase in demand. It is supplied by commercial energy sources the setup produced a low drying efficiency (12%) because of the huge

5
A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 2
Selected studies on solar drying of agricultural crop products and their drying and performance parameters.
Parameter Lakshmi Ndukwu et al., (2017) Ndukwu et al., Zachariah Shringi Baniasadi Atalay, Mohanraj and Rabha
et al., (2018) (2017) et al., (2020) et al., et al., (2019) Chandrasekar, et al.,
(2014) (2017) (2009) (2017)

Dryer Size/ 2.04 m – – 280 mm × 1.2 m × 0.7 m × 0.6 2.3 m × 1 m × 1 m × 1.5 2m×
Specifications length, 1 120 mm × 80 0.6 m × m × 0.15 m 2.3 m × m 0.85 m ×
0.04 m width mm 0.5 m 2.3 m 0.37 m
and 0.2 m
depth
Product dried black Red chili Red chili Bitter gourd Garlic apricot Orange Chili Ghost
turmeric clove slices slices chili
pepper
Drying capacity 15 1 1 2.5 – – 10 40 9
(kg)
Final mass of the – 0.373 kg 0.398 kg – – – 0.988 kg – 1.02 kg
product (kg)
Initial moisture 73.4% 72.2% 72.2% 92% 55.5% 86% 93.5% 72.8% 85.5%
content of
product (%)
Final moisture 8.5% 7.6% 10.1% 4% 6.5% 25% 10.76% 9.1% 9.7%
content of
product
Average ambient – 28.25 ◦ C 28.6 ◦ C 32 ◦ C 32 ◦ C – 27.3 ◦ C 31 ◦ C 32 ◦ C
temperature
(◦ C)
Drying air 65 ◦ C 40.35 ◦ C 41.83 ◦ C 48 ◦ C 39–69 65 ◦ C 55.4 ◦ C 50.4 ◦ C 50 ◦ C
temperature
(◦ C)
Drying time (h) 18.5 h (solar 24.5 h 36.5 h 10 h 8h 1.55 gr/h 7.2 h 24 h 42 h
drying) and
46.5 h (open
sun drying)
Energy storage Paraffin wax sodium sulfate Sodium PVC caps, Al PCM Paraffin Packed Gravel Heat
material decahydrate chloride pipes and wax bed storage
(Na2SO4⋅10H2O) (NaCl) paraffin wax (Pebbles) module
Total energy – 7.37 MJ of solar 11.49 MJ and – – – 88.1 MJ – 21.3 MJ
consumption energy and 0.204 MJ 0.011 MJ of
(MJ) of thermo-chemical solar and
energy thermo-
chemical
energy
Specific energy 5.21 3.34 5.28 6.1 (without – – 1.98 – 18.72
consumption PCM) and 3.6
(kWh/kg per kg (with PCM)
of moisture)
Mass of water 0.192 0.627 0.602 0.16 (without 0.54–1.05 0.933 0.505 0.87 0.053
evaporate (kg of PCM) and
water / kWh) 0.28 (with
PCM)
Relative humidity 22% (inside) 42.23% (inside) and 59% (inside) – – – 45.21% 60% –
(%) and 65% 64.9% (outside) and 64.9%
(outside) (outside)
Drying efficiency 12 18.79 11.89 18.6 – 10.7 34.4 21 4.05
(%)
Collector 25.6 – – – – – – – 22.95
efficiency (%)
Exergy efficiency – 66.82 – 67 – 88 – – 63.34 – 63
(%)

amount of heat losses such as convection and radiation. A natural convection solar dryer (NCSD) was integrated with TES
A newly developed mixed-mode solar dryer is a better option for materials such as sodium chloride (NaCl) and sodium sulfate decahy­
drying high-value medicinal agricultural products like black turmeric drate (Na2SO4⋅10H2O) for continuous drying of red chili at Nigerian
(Lakshmi et al., 2018). In DSD dryers, the food product directly absorbs climate conditions (Ndukwu et al., 2017). Three cases of experiments
the solar radiation through the collector cover, whereas, in ISD, the air is were conducted namely; dryer with Na2SO4⋅10H2O (Case-I) and NaCl
heated in a separate chamber and sent to the drying chamber. The (Case-II) TES systems and dryer without TES system (Case-III) was used
mixed-mode dryers have the provision of both DSD and ISD dryers, to dry red chili to reduce the MC from 72.27% (wb) to 7.6% (wb), 10.1%
therefore, it has the following advantages; and 10.3%, respectively. It took a drying time of 24.5 h, 36.5 h, and 40.5
h for case-I, II, and III, respectively. There is not much considerable
• A rapid drying rate is possible with the safe moisture level in the difference in drying time of Case-II and Case-III experiments. But the
product. considerable difference is there in Case-I and Case-III and almost 16 h
• The time required to dry the products is less compared to DSD and drying time is saved in Case-I. Therefore, Na2SO4⋅10H2O can be used as
ISD drying techniques. an efficient TES material (Ndukwu et al., 2017).
• Uniform distribution of airflow rate is possible inside the dryer. The overall drying efficiency and energy utilization of the three cases

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A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

differed from 10.61 to 18.79% and 7.54–12.98 MJ, respectively. The dryers without and with the TES system. The sustainability index and
exergy efficiency of the dryer at night times (with NaCl and improvement potential were in the range of 2.15 to 3.17 and 0.016 to
Na2SO4⋅10H2O) was 81.19% and the same for the overall drying process 0.07 kW, respectively. This system has improved drying efficiency
(round-a-clock) was 66.82%. It was concluded that approximately 602 (34%) and SMER because of minimum heat losses from the system.
tonnes/year of CO2 could be limited from entering the air using An experimental analysis was performed in an indirect FCSD with
Na2SO4⋅10H2O as a TES medium compared to a diesel-powered dryer. TES material (gravel) to dry red chili (Mohanraj and Chandrasekar,
The most important finding is effective energy utilization. Case-I, II, and 2009). The MC of the red chili was reduced from 72.8% to 9.2%. The
III have consumed energy of 3.34, 5.28, and 5.92 kWh/kg of moisture average drying air temperature inside the cabin was 50.4 ◦ C (refer to
removal. It proves that these types of NCSD integrated with TES effec­ Table 2). A high drying rate of 6.2 kg/kg of dry matter per hour was
tively minimized various heat losses which lead to efficient energy achieved in the initial stages of drying. The thermal efficiency of the
usage. solar dryer was 21% with a specific moisture removal rate of 0.87 kg/kW
A novel photovoltaic (PV) assisted greenhouse cabinet mixed-mode h. A similar analysis with energy and exergy analysis in an FCSD was
solar dryer integrated with a TES system was used for drying bitter carried out by Rabha et al., (2017). A paraffin wax-based shell and tube
guard slices (Zachariah et al., 2020). The paraffin wax was used as TES latent heat storage unit was used in the setup. It was examined with 20
material which was packed into the dryer cabinet. 2.5 kg of the bitter kg of red chili with an initial MC of 73.5% (wb). The product was dried
guard were dried from 92% to 4% MC (wb) which took 10 h with the TES up to the MC of 9.7% (wb) in four consecutive days (the effective drying
system and the same took 1 day without the TES system as mentioned in period is 35 h). In comparison with the OSD method, the newly devel­
Table 2. The required specific energy per kg of moisture removal from oped FCSD method saved 122.8% of the drying time of chili. The exergy
the product was 3.6 kWh per kg of water (with TES system) and 6.1 kWh and energy efficiencies of the TES unit were between 18.3 and 20.5%
per kg of water (without TES system), respectively. The specific moisture and 43.6–49.8%, respectively. The exergy efficiency of the drying cab­
removal rates from the product (bitter gourd) with and without the TES inet was in the range of 24.6% to 98.1% with an average of 52.2%. The
system were 0.28 and 0.16 kg of water per kWh, respectively. The specific energy requirement and the gross efficiency of the solar drying
overall ηd of the solar dryer with and without the TES system was 18.6% system were 6.8 kWh per kg of moisture and 10.8%, respectively. The
and 10.8%, respectively. The primary findings are; an increase in overall power consumption of the dryer was 0.7 kWh per kg of moisture which
ηd and a reduction in drying time. It just took 10 h to completely dry the was only 10.3% of the specific energy consumption of the chili.
product which is a good sign in the development of mixed-mode type A similar study of FCSD with paraffin wax was performed by El
solar dryers. A similar kind of study was carried out by Shringi et al., Khadraoui et al., (2017). The performance was evaluated at two
(2014) for drying of garlic clove. The cloves were dried from 55.5% to different cases under no-load conditions: with PCM and without PCM.
6.5% MC (wb) at the drying time of 8 h. The energy and exergy effi­ The daily energy and exergy efficiencies of FCSD with PCM were 33.9%
ciencies were between 67.06% and 88.24 % and 3.98% to 14.95%, and 8.5%, respectively. At night time, the drying air temperature inside
respectively. the drying cabinet was 4 to 16 ◦ C higher than outside ambient tem­
An experimental investigation of a mixed-mode forced convection perature. A similar kind of research was already attempted by El-Sebaii
solar dryer (FCSD) integrated with a TES system was carried out by and Shalaby, (2013) for drying thymus and mint under Tanta, Egypt
Baniasadi et al., (2017). A blower was used to maintain a continuous weather conditions.
supply of air for drying apricot slices. Paraffin wax was used as a TES An HSD dryer for osmotically pre-dehydrated cherry tomatoes was
material and it was placed at the bottom of the cabinet tray. The basic designed by Nabnean et al., (2016). 100 kg cherry tomatoes were dried
difference between this system and other mixed-mode dryers was the at a temperature between 30 and 65 ◦ C for 4 days. The osmotic pre­
structure and construction of the solar collector. The collector plate was treatment of tomatoes before solar drying helps to improve final quality.
tilted to 30◦ and the total collector area was partitioned into three zones Sekyere et al. (2016b) developed a solar dryer with six infrared heat
in the form of trapezoidal shapes. Experiments were carried out with and lamps to simulate solar radiation in laboratory conditions. Concrete
without the TES system to remove MC from initial MC of 86% to final absorber and rock pebble bed were used to store solar energy and
MC of 25% as shown in Table 2. The dryer with a TES system provides a assisted with an electric heater. Performance of dryer was investigated
50% higher drying rate than without a TES system. The ηd and moisture with 2.3 kg pineapple slices and the MC in the solar dryer was reduced
removal pickup efficiencies were 10.7% and 9.8%, respectively. from 912 to 155% (db) in 7 h. Yahya et al., (2018) carried out the
The impact of packed bed TES system and waste heat recovery sys­ performance and economic analyses on solar-assisted heat pump fluid­
tem (recuperator) was examined on the performance of a solar dryer ized bed dryer integrated with biomass furnace for rice drying. MC of
which was used to dry apple slices (Atalay et al., (2017). The novelty of rice was reduced from 32.85% (db) to 16.29% (db) in 22.95 min, with a
the dryer was the drying air was again and again recirculated with the mass flow rate of 0.1037 kg/s at an average temperature of 80.9 ◦ C. The
help of a recuperator. So that 50 to 60% of the waste heat was utilized payback period of the system was1.6 years.
effectively in the dryer. The average temperature of the air was between In recent days, new parameters such as waste exergy ratio, sustain­
55 and 60 ◦ C as presented in Table 2. The stored thermal energy in the ability index, and improvement potential are introduced to assess the
packed bed system was 210 MJ. The drying process was continued till performance of dryers with storage systems (Atalay, 2019). From the
the final moisture of the apple slices was reached 10%. The average recent studies related to the TES device, the drying efficiency was 21%
drying time was 6 h. The drying process took 8 kW of energy to complete (Mohanraj and Chandrasekar, 2009) which was less than 20% a decade
the drying process. The specific moisture removal rate of the product before. It was proved that FCSD with a TES storage system can enhance
was 0.819 kg per kWh. the performance and overall efficiency of the drying system. One more
The practical feasibility of a low-cost solar drying system integrated new term (pick-up efficiency) is introduced by Baniasadi et al., (2017) to
with a packed bed TES system was investigated using an experimental evaluate the actual performance of the solar dryer based on the removed
study (Atalay, 2019). The drying kinetics of orange slices were studied to moisture from the food product. The structure of a dryer suggested by
investigate various performance parameters such as exergy, energy, Baniasadi et al., (2017) is relatively less complicated and never utilized
sustainability index, improvement potential, and waste exergy ratio. the auxiliary energy during daytime. The drying rate was reduced by
Orange slices were dried from 93.5% to 10.28% MC (refer to Table 2). 50% with the use of energy storage material. The dryer integrated with
The average energy required and specific energy consumed to dry the the TES system could recover an energy payback period of 1.91 years
orange slices was 89.89 MJ and 1.89 kWh per kg, respectively. The and also a discounted payback time of 0.8 years which is lower than the
specific water evaporation rate (SMER) was 0.53 kg per kWh. The exergy life span of the dryer making it environmentally and economically safe
efficiency was in the range of 50.18–66.58 % and 54.71–68.37% for (Zachariah et al., 2020).

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A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

4.2. Marine industries which was then supplied to heat the air for pasta drying. The proposed
solar dryer could save 40% annual thermal energy in a pasta factory.
Marine industries also one of the major sectors where solar energy Marine foods are highly sensitive tissues that need to be dried with
plays an important for the drying of married products. A solar dryer with much care. The partial moisture within the food destroys the tissues and
a TES system was developed for shrimps drying (Murali et al., 2020). it may be unusable then. The safer MC within the fish is reported as
The water-based TES system stored the energy during peak sunshine 15–20% (wb) (Rahman, 2006). The studies with 15–20% of final MC
hours. Also, the dryer was assisted with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as were not found for fish drying in literature. Such an intensive drying
an auxiliary heating source. 50 kg shrimp were dried from 76.71% (wb) process, the dryer needs a lot of energy and it cannot be feasible by solar
to 15.38% (wb) within 6 h of drying as mentioned in Table 3. Solar energy alone or need more researches to achieve the same. In such a
collector supplied 73.93% of heat and the rest of the energy (26.07%) situation, hybrid dryers can be designed (Hamdani et al., 2018) to run
was assisted by the LPG water heater system (Murali et al., 2020). the dryer round-a-clock so that the micro-organisms reaction can be
Table 3 provides the various studies on the solar drying of marine avoided. The possible options are solar energy with bio-mass energy
applications. (Hamdani et al., 2018) or industrial waste heat energy, or diesel burner
An indirect type hybrid FCSD dryer with an artificial heat source of (Fudholi and Sopian, 2019).
diesel burner was designed and developed by Fudholi and Sopian, Most of the time, the marine foods were dried with dry salts. The dry
(2019) to dry salted silver jewfish. V-groove collector was used to salts always take further MC from the tissues. When the muscles were
enhancing the heat flux absorbing capacity of the collector. The diesel with more MC and dried with a higher temperature, the salt is diffused
burner was assisted with the dryer so that the drying could be effectively uniformly all its geometry because the diffusion coefficient is a function
performed with a continuous supply of heat. The dryer took a minimum of temperature and MC. A good salting process was explained for Tilapia
of 8 h to remove the MC from 64% to 10% (wb). The specific energy fish in (Rahman, 2006). The fish-salt ratio is 3:1, salting time was up to
consumption rate of the dryer was 2.92 kWh/kg (as shown in Table 3). 24 h, the effective drying time of 6–20 h with the drying air temperature
The drying and exergy efficiencies of the hybrid system were 23% and range of 40 to 60 ◦ C are the other drying data provided in (Rahman,
31%, respectively. 2006). From the experimental works of marine food drying, it was found
The same marine food (silver jewfish) was dried in another study that the average collector exit temperature was 75 ◦ C with an average
(Bala and Mondol, 2001). They investigated the performance of a solar drying efficiency of 25.42%. The average temperature attained inside
tunnel dryer at Bangladesh atmospheric conditions. A 20 m length and 2 the chamber lies between 60 and 65 ◦ C.
m width of tunnel dryer were used for the drying process. MC was
reduced from 67% (wb) to 16.78% (wb) in 36 h. This chemical 4.3. Tea industries
composition of dried fish indicated that the fish dried in the solar tunnel
dryer was a quality product for consumption. A hybrid solar dryer Tea is one of the most consumed drinks. China and India have a
assisted with biomass-based air heating system had been tested by major contribution to tea production which is near about 29.56% and
Hamdani et al., (2018) for fish drying. Solar energy was used from 25.35% of the total world tea production (Chang, 2015). Withering,
9.00 am to 4.00 pm followed by a biomass burner from 4.00 pm to the drying, grading, and packing are processes involved in tea production
next day at 6.00 am. Overall, the drying air temperature was maintained that are energy-intensive and these processes consume 85% of thermal
at 40–67 ◦ C and the mass of fish reduced to 12.5 kg from 25 kg (as energy and 15% of electrical energy (Sharma et al., 2019). The thermal
mentioned in Table 3). The maximum drying air temperature main­ energy required for the drying process during tea production can be
tained inside the cabin was 50 ◦ C (in the daytime) and 67 ◦ C (at the night fulfilled by solar energy. Vacuum-assisted solar dryers were designed
with the help of a biomass dryer). The total moisture removal rate from and experimented for drying black tea by Pou and Tripathy (2020). The
the product (on a wb) is 50.5% to 12% within a drying period of 23 h. relationship between input parameters such as vacuum level, loading
The total incurred cost of the hybrid solar dryer was $ 1870 with the rate, and output parameters such as color, aroma, index, drying time and
break-even point of 2.6 years. energy consumption were presented. The system was optimized based
The technical feasibility of industrial solar dryer integrated with on the maximum liquor color and aroma index with minimum energy
linear Fresnel collector and concrete TES for production of pasta was consumption and drying time. Liquor color, aroma index, drying time
conducted by Liu et al., (2015). A dryer capacity of 2.4 MW was used. and energy consumption were estimated to be 20.08, 11.65, 4.44,
Thermic oil was heated with a linear Fresnel collector. Hot thermic oil 140.66 min and 21450.7 kJ, respectively, at an optimum vacuum level
was used to heat the water with the temperature range of 120 to 140 ◦ C of 570.71 mmHg and loading rate of 0.96 kg m− 2. Ozturk and Dincer

Table 3
Selected studies on solar drying of marine applications.
Paper Size / Product Drying Initial Final Air Drying Heat source Energy Drying Exergy
Specifications dried capacity moisture moisture Temperature time (h) consumption efficiency efficiency
(kg) content content (◦ C) (kJ) (%) (%)

Murali 4.23 m × 1.00 shrimp 50 76.71% 5.38% 55 6 Solar system 2,79,531 37.09 –
et al., m × 1.80 m (wb) (wb) (2,06,641
(2020) kJ) and LPG
water heater
(72,890 kJ)
Bala and 40 m2 area Salted 150 67% (wb) 16.78% 52.2 36 Solar energy – – –
Mondol, silver (wb)
(2001) jewfish
Fudholi 13.8 m2 area Salted 51 64% (wb) 10% (wb) 50 8 Solar system 2.92 kWh/kg 23 31%
and silver and Diesel (Avg.)
Sopian, jewfish burner
(2019)
Hamdani 2.6 m × 0.8 m Queen 25 50.5% 12% (wb) 50 (day time), 23 Solar system – – –
et al., fish (wb) 67 (night) and biomass
(2018) fueled air
heater

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A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

(2019) conducted the exergo-economic analysis of solar dryer integrated automobile sector is one of the developing sectors as well as expensive,
with PV unit for drying of tea leaves. MC in 100 kg wet tea leaves was the usage of solar energy is highly advantageous. Also, it has a lot of
reduced from 80% (wb) to 3% (wb) in four days. The capital cost and the potential for the involvement of a solar air heating system for various
capital productivity of the dryer were estimated to be $5953 and 1.54, operations. SAC or water-based collector with a water–air heat
respectively. The energetic loss ratios, exergetic loss ratios, exergy effi­ exchanger can be used for air heating up to 80 ◦ C to 150 ◦ C which can
ciency and exergy destruction were estimated as 76.45 MJ/$, 72.63 MJ/ save a lot of fossil fuel consumption (Giampieri et al., 2020; Orsato and
$, 74% and 201.6 GJ, respectively. Wells, 2007).
Chamomile leaves (herbal tea) were dried in a solar dryer and the The polymeric coating is another important application in the
drying kinetics were estimated by Amer et al. (2018). The dryer was automobile sector. It is used to avoid corrosion in steel plates. It is also
assisted with a solar collector, reflector, water air heat exchanger, and advantageous such as less toxic and environmentally friendly compared
solar heated water storage tank with an electric heater as a supple­ to other chemical coatings (Singhal et al., 2014). It is made up of layer by
mentary heat source. Water was used as a sensible heat storage medium layer and each layer needs to be properly dried to make the subsequent
which stored heat energy during day time. Two drying chambers were layer. A high temperature drying air up to 90 ◦ C is necessary to dry each
used with a capacity of 32–35 kg. One drying chamber was placed just layer. Solar drying can be preferred by providing proper arrangements
below the absorber surface and the second one was placed in a series so that the excess cost involved in commercial energy can be avoided.
with the first chamber. Temperature controllers were used to controlling More understanding is required between chemists and drying re­
the required drying temperature. The system was useful to dry chamo­ searchers to take forward this specific research area with solar drying to
mile from 75% to 6% (wb MC) which helped to reduce the drying time the next arena.
by 27–30 h compared with OSD. Midilli model was suggested for fitting
the drying kinetics of chamomile. 4.5. Rubber industry
An FCSD dryer with an auxiliary heating system was used to dry
Mexican tea leaves (Kane et al., 2008). During the experiments, the Rubber is an elastic substance used in a wide range of goods pro­
following parameters such as solar insolation, ambient temperature, duction. Rubber is produced by natural latex from the plant or by arti­
drying air temperature, relative humidity, and airflow rate were varied. ficial synthetic method. Drying plays an important role in maintaining
It was concluded that the temperature was the most influential param­ the quality of the final rubber sheet from raw material. Breymayer et al.
eter during drying. The diffusion coefficient of tea leaves was in the (1993) reported that the improper drying of raw rubber material results
range of 1.0209 to 1.0440 × 10-9 m2.s− 1 and the activation energy was in low-grade rubber sheets which are about 80% of the total production
89.15 kJ.mol− 1. They reported that Wang and Singh model is the best which have to be sold at relatively low prices. Drying is generally done
model for the characterization of Mexican tea leaves drying. by a simple hot air-drying method or by smoke drying method. In the air-
The economic viability of roof-integrated solar dryer for tea drying drying method, wet rubber sheets are dried with the OSD or by pro­
was investigated by Palaniappan and Subramanian (1998). The dryer ducing the hot air by conventional energy sources. In the case of the
was provided with other sources of heat energy such as coal and fire­ smoke-drying method, smoke was generated by burning firewood and
wood. The built collector area was 212 m2. The solar energy usage on biomass in the smokehouse to remove the moisture from rubber sheets.
the dryer saved the annual fuel consumption by 25%. Sopian et al. Rubber is generally dried in the temperature range of 45–60 ◦ C and it
(2000) carried out the experimental analysis on a solar-assisted drying can be easily achievable using solar energy (Tanwanichkul et al., 2013).
system for herbal tea drying. The solar collector was provided with V- Breymayer et al. (1993) developed the dryer integrated with SAC and
grooves so that it could create enough turbulence and hence enhanced traditional firewood/biomass smokehouse as an auxiliary heating
the heat transfer rate. The collector area of 20 m2 could provide a hot air source. SAC with recirculation of exit air from the dryer helped to
temperature of more than 50 ◦ C at a flow rate of 15.1 m3/min. An generate a drying air temperature range of 45–60 ◦ C. A total of 320 kg of
auxiliary heating system was employed if the air temperature was less rubber sheets were dried using a solar dryer and the sheets lost their MC
than 50 ◦ C. The dryer effectively drying the herbal leaves from 87% MC from 60% to 0.5% which reduced the firewood consumption. It took five
(wb) to 54% MC (wb) in 12 h. days to achieve 0.5% MC in the solar dryer with biomass whereas, it took
From the above studies on tea leaves drying, the following highlights seven days with the solar dryer alone. But the developed system is very
were observed. Vacuum-assisted solar dryers help to produce quality advantageous because if commercial energy is used for seven continuous
black tea after providing the optimum vacuum level and loading rate days (instead of solar drying), the expenses will increase further. An ISD
(Pou and Tripathy, 2020). Exergo-economic analysis needs to be per­ dryer assisted with an electric air heater was used for natural rubber
formed to find the energy and exergy losses from the dryer. Also, ex­ drying which provided the quality rubber as a final product (Pratoto
penses incurred for the drying system and the payback period can be et al., 1998). The moisture content of rubber sheets was dried from 60%
identified as these are important terminologies for tea industries. A to 0.5% (wb) in 8.8 h at 100 ◦ C.
hybrid solar dryer with a reflector, thermal storage, and two drying Dejchanchaiwong et al., (2016) compared the drying performance of
chamber could effectively help to save the drying time up to 20 h mixed-mode and ISD dryers while drying with 30 natural rubber sheets.
compared to OSD. These types of dryers can be commercialized in rural Better quality and drying rate was noticed for the mixed-mode dryer
areas so that small-scale farmers get benefitted (Amer et al., 2018). The compared to the ISD. Both dryers helped to reduce the drying time by
annual fuel consumption is reduced up to 26% by pre-heating of tea- 2–3 days compared to OSD. Dryer efficiencies of the mixed-mode and
processing air using a solar air heating system (Palaniappan and Sub­ ISD dryers were 15.4% and 13.3%, respectively. MCs in rubber sheets
ramanian, 1998). were reduced from 32.3 to 2% (wb) and 29.4 to 8% (wb) in four days
using mixed-mode and ISD dryers, respectively.
4.4. Automobile industry The performance of the greenhouse solar dryer for rubber sheet
drying was analyzed by Janjai et al. (2015). The dryer was able to
The automobile industry has a long and complex manufacturing provide the temperature from 32 to 55 ℃ which was useful for effective
process. Paint curing is an important process in automobile industries drying of 750 kg rubber sheets without affecting its quality compared
which is carried out by thermal energy mainly in the form of hot air at a with OSD. The dryer was useful to reduce the MC of rubber sheets from
temperature in the range of 80–150 ◦ C. Also, during the manufacturing 24 − 30% (wb) to 0.4–3.9% (wb) in five days where OSD could reduce
process of automobile components, hot air is used to dry the components only 13% in five days. They also developed an ANN model to predict the
at a temperature below 90 ◦ C. This heat energy can be retrieved from drying characteristics of rubber sheets.
solar energy instead of using a commercial energy source. The Artificial neural network modeling was carried out to develop the

9
A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

dryer for mass production. Jitjack et al. (2016) suggested a parabolic application of paper drying. The prototype was tested for different
greenhouse dryer with area-enhanced panels for effective drying of handmade paper types at different input conditions. The specific energy
rubber sheets as shown in Fig. 3. There were two setups made to consumption was 3.5 MJ / kg of water evaporated and the dryer effi­
compare the results. One was made with a parabolic greenhouse col­ ciency was 80%. The developed prototype is useful for developing a
lector and in another, additional collector plates were provided for large-scale setup.
enhancing the collecting area. Better quality of rubber sheets was The potential of solar energy for process heat and its advantages on
noticed in the enhanced area model compared with simple parabolic the reduction of CO2 emissions in the paper and pulp industry was
greenhouse dryer. The dryer was able to provide a maximum tempera­ presented by Sharma et al. (2016). Annual process heat requirements
ture of 55 ℃, which helped to reduce the drying time by 3.5 days were estimated based on location and raw material used and estimated
compared to the dryer without area-enhanced panels. the performance of commercial systems. Tagnamas et al. (2021) used a
When the rubber sheets are dried with natural and OSD drying convective solar dryer to find the drying kinetics and characteristics of
methods, the final dried product took a lot of drying times, and some­ the carob pulp at various drying temperatures from 50 to 80 ◦ C and
times it took 10–20 days. Such a long drying time creates huge color velocity of 0.18 and 0.09 m/s. It was observed that the diffusion coef­
changes on the final product. Sometimes, more MC and long drying time ficient varies with temperature. It was in the range of 1.56 to 6.98 × 10-9
produce fungus growth on the product and thereby deteriorating the m2/s. The energy and exergy efficiencies were estimated and these are in
natural color further. These are all not encouraged by the purchaser or the range of 4.23% to 7.25% and 30.12% to 80.5%, respectively.
the product price is reduced from the standard price which creates a lot Among the above studies, it is identified that the pulp and paper
of inconvenience to the rubber farmers. Therefore, the rubber sheets industry sector also reliably used solar energy. There were many setups
need to be dried within few days so that the freshness is maintained developed for the paper and pulp drying process. This sector needs to be
which attracts the buyer. Such issues can be solved using solar drying addressed well for future development. It needs more studies so that
techniques. A perfectly designed solar dryer produces up to 70 ◦ C these industries can develop their system to dry the materials with solar
(Lingayat et al., 2020a) air temperature inside the drying chamber, energy. The thermal energy and the quality of energy needed for pulp
therefore, rubber sheets can be dried enough in these setups. More and paper industries need to be estimated. The other major thermal
experimental and numerical studies are required to run the setup with energy requirement factors such as land availability, location, fuel cost,
different volumes of rubber sheets so that industries come forward to quality of steam required, compatibility of existing method, other
make their setup and finally it can reach farmers. emergency heating systems, etc. need to be investigated for the benefit
of this sector.

4.6. Pulp, paper, and allied industries 4.7. Sugarcane industry

The pulp and paper industry is one more sector where solar-based Bagasse is crushed fibers left over after the juice from the sugarcane
technologies can play an important role to reduce energy costs. industry which is an excellent raw material that can be used as fuel for
Different processes involved in these industries are pulp making, electricity generation, bio-methane production, animal feed, and fertil­
bleaching, paper making, drying, etc. Drying is the process that izers (Rabelo et al., 2011). Generally, the dry bagasse is used as fuel to
happened at the final stage at a temperature between 60 ◦ C and 150 ◦ C. heat the cane juice in the heating pan. For effective combustion, it is
It is a very important and critical process that consumes a large amount necessary to remove the moisture from the bagasse (Venkata Sai and
of heat (Gemechu et al., 2012). The commonly used method of OSD for Reddy, 2020). Few studies reported that the solar drying method can be
handmade paper can be replaced by solar drying (Madhavan and chosen for drying the wet bagasse before feeding into the furnace for
Ramachandran, 2015). An ISD dryer was developed for drying twelve combustion (Phadkari et al., 2017; Subahana and Natarajan, 2016).
A4 size paper sheets (each 22 g) at a time. The collector outlet tem­ Phadkari et al. (2017) developed an FCSD setup for solar drying of
perature was in the range of 45 to 70 ◦ C. The dryer was useful to reduce bagasse pulp where 1000 g of bagasse fibers were dried. The proposed
the MC of sheets from 50% to 7% (wb) during 65 to 75 min of drying dryer was useful to dry the bagasse from the initial MC of 48% to 16.77%
time. An economic analysis was carried out and found that a payback (wb).
period for the dryer was 95 days. Theoretical and experimental analysis of solar tunnel dryer was
Hjort and Thomas, (2014) developed a small prototype of a solar carried out by Subahana and Natarajan, (2016) for drying of switch­
dryer assisted with a water heater and air–water heat exchanger for the grass, rice straw, and sugarcane trash. The setup was made with four
compartments and the bottom of the compartment was made with wood
for avoiding heat losses. Aluminium chambers with stainless steel
meshes were provided for keeping the materials. Four different soils
such as red (absorptivity of 0.65), yellow (0.73), grey (0.84), and black
(0.95) were used in four compartments to check the effect of absorp­
tivity of soils. The rice straw was dried for 8 h and its MC reached 0.906,
0.872, 0.849, and 0.837 kg/kg of db for red, yellow, grey, and black
soils, respectively. It shows that when the absorptivity of soil is
increased, the moisture removal rate is decreased. When absorptivity
increases, more portion of heat energy is absorbed by the soil results in
lower temperature inside the compartments. It creates a low drying rate
of rice straw. The setup was given with a provision to conduct the ex­
periments for parallel and cross-flow passage. The crossed flow gave
much better results because of more turbulence inside the compartments
and hence the grasses get high exposure to hot air. Maximum temper­
atures of 78 and 63 ◦ C were observed during theoretical and experi­
mental analysis of rice straw drying with yellow-colored soil.
Vijayaraj and Saravanan (2008) carried out a numerical study on the
Fig. 3. The pictorial view of greenhouse solar dryer with natural rubber sheets drying behavior of rectangular bagasse to predict the temperature and
inside (Jitjack et al., 2016). moisture distribution within it. Variation in mass transfer coefficient and

10
A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

heat transfer coefficients were estimated which varied in the range is achievable with the help of greenhouse dryers, ISD, and mixed-mode
about 0.0001 to 0.0125 m/s and 0.01 to 0.5 W/m2K, respectively. dryers.
Embong et al. (2016) proposed a method to extract the SiO2 from sug­ Once again proved that the ISD process is always better than the DSD
arcane bagasse ash. The authors suggested a pre-treatment method using process under the same working conditions (same solar radiation).
low-concentration acid followed by a solar drying process. The proposed Based on the evaluation of thermodynamic characteristics of drying of
method was efficient for the production of sugarcane bagasse ash with sludge, it is known that OSD creates an uneven drying, whereas, ISD
high pozzolanic reactivity to extract SiO2 that can be used as an alter­ produces better performance. This sector needs a further analysis on
native to cement. The solar dryer was used for drying sugarcane bagasse bacterial reaction before, during, and after the drying process and more
after washing in a constantly rotating cylinder for 20 min. studies are needed to concentrate on dewatering, stabilization, incin­
Sugarcane bagasse is an effective feedstock in combustion chambers eration, thickening, etc. so that the solar drying of sludge can be pro­
and is also used for bioethanol production. This waste consists of a huge jected in a better way to industries and society.
of MC and it needs to be removed properly. This moisture removal
process can be done with solar drying. OSD drying creates high 4.9. Lignite coal industry
contamination on the final dried product which may affect the com­
bustion process and also more studies need to be made with ISD dryers. Lignite is the foremost fossil fuel used in thermal power plants for
The energy, exergy, and economic parameters need to be estimated and electricity generation which carries about 30–70% of MC. The MC cre­
analyzed thoroughly so that more industries can utilize this concept ates further difficulty during the combustion process. It is necessary to
which may directly benefit the farmers. remove the MC before feeding into the combustion chamber (Nikolo­
poulos et al., 2015). Liu et al., (2017) analyzed the performance of solar
4.8. Sewage and industrial waste drying of lignite coal in a thermal power plant as shown in Fig. 4. A
parabolic dish collector was used for the pre-drying of lignite coal and
Sludge and wastewater are a mixture of liquid and solid-like the dried lignite was fed into the boiler for combustion which helped to
municipal waste or industrial waste that is discharged into the river or increase the boiler efficiency. It was observed that the overall combus­
sea without pretreatment. A significant quantity of waste, in the form of tion efficiency of lignite coal was influenced by the preheating of coal
sludge, is produced after wastewater treatment which carries 95% of before feeding into the boiler. Also observed that both dryer efficiency
water content. Presently, mechanical systems are used for dewatering and boiler efficiency influenced the solar-to-electric conversion effi­
but these systems are not useful for pathogen reduction where thermal ciency. The solar-to-electric conversion efficiency of 34% was achieved
heat can play an important role. Thermal heat has a high operational for the proposed plant.
cost. So, solar energy for thermal heat generation can be an economical A solar dryer with flat plate air solar collectors was used for the pre-
and efficient solution. Dried sludge reduces the storage, handling, and drying of lignite in a solar-lignite hybrid power generation plant (Xu
transportation cost for sludge. et al., 2018). The dried lignite, using solar energy, has a high calorific
A case study on wastewater sludge drying was conducted by Bel­ value which helped to increase the plant efficiency. Thermal energy,
loulid et al., (2019) in Morocco. The greenhouse dryer was designed for exergy efficiency, and economic analysis were carried out to find the
sludge drying to reduce the water from sludge and results were effect of dried lignite on system performance and lignite expenditure.
compared with OSD. Fresh sludge samples with 80% initial MC were The solar-dried lignite helped to increase the boiler efficiency by 1.2%
considered for the experiment. To reach the final MC of 20%, OSD took which saved the lignite expenditure cost and increased the overall en­
45 h and 65 h whereas, the greenhouse dryer took 32 h and 57 h in ergy efficiency by 0.5%. Solar electrical efficiency was estimated to be
summer and winter, respectively. Ameri et al., (2020) conducted a study 21.2%. A similar type of solar lignite hybrid power generation system
in Algeria on the drying behavior of wastewater sludge in indirect and was proposed by Xu et al. (2017). The effect of integration of solar en­
direct solar drying (ISD and DSD). Drying rate, moisture diffusion co­ ergy for pre-drying of low-rank coal and low-temperature pyrolysis on
efficient, and drying efficiency were analyzed and found that better system performance was investigated. It was observed that the solar
performance on the ISD method than the DSD method. The average drying of low-rank coal helped to achieve the required quality of coal for
drying temperature was observed to be 43 and 41 ◦ C in ISD and DSD, boiler feeding. The proposed system was integrated with a typical 600
respectively. The diffusion coefficient was in the range of 1.91 to 9.12 × MW supercritical power plant for further analysis. Overall energy and
10-8 m2.s− 1. The activation energy for ISD and DSD dryers was 32.16 and exergy efficiencies of the system were estimated to be 90% and 89.8%,
32.01 kJ mol− 1, respectively. respectively.
Mechanical dewatering is a method to separate sludge into a liquid Han et al. (2020) proposed a solar lignite hybrid power generation
and a solid part. This dewatered sludge need to be dried again to remove system where solar-driven heat pumps were integrated with waste heat
its MC. A study was performed by Salihoglu et al. (2007) to remove MC recovery. The system gave a two-stage drying for the lignite. Waste heat
from the dewatered sludge with a plastic glazed solar tunnel greenhouse was absorbed by the solar-driven heat pump and utilized for pre-drying
dryer. Solar drying after mechanical dewatering helped to reduce the of lignite, which helped to increase the heating value of the fuel. Both
sludge weight by 60% and the addition of 15% lime before drying hel­ thermodynamics and economic analysis were carried out for the 660
ped to reduce the pathogen in the sludge. Solar dryer with rock bed as a MW power plant. The authors claimed that the proposed method helped
TES material was used for sludge drying (Poblete and Painemal, 2020). to generate the additional 50.3 MW power with 3.47% higher efficiency.
Rock bed material helped to improve the drying process and reduced the From the above studies, it is proved that solar energy is successfully
drying time by providing the required temperature after sunshine hours. used to dry lignite/coal. The coal/lignite is a huge quantity, sometimes
The energy efficiency of the dryer with the TES system was 21.68% in tonnes, compared to few kgs of food materials or other industrial
higher than the dryer without TES. applications. Drying of huge quantum (of lignite/coal) is a tough task
Biogas plant waste slurry is a good natural fertilizer for agricultural and need expensive solar plants with huge collector area. Once it is
land. Also, the dried slurry can be used for landfilling as it consists of a made, the system works fine without further expenses. Also, the dryer
lot of natural nutrients. Drying of slurry is the major task in the biogas gives enhanced performance parameters such as energy, exergy, solar-
plant. If the plant was provided with necessary arrangements for solar to-electric conversion, boiler efficiencies (Xu et al., 2017; Xu et al.,
drying, then the exhaust slurry can be properly treated with 15–20% of 2018) when normal dryers were updated with solar dryers. Also, MC
lime and can be dried. The drying time of the slurry was reduced to 65% presents in lignite/coal gives more problems in coal generating unit and
compared to the OSD method (Kumar and Prakash, 2019). As the tem­ fuel handling equipment and hence this natural energy can be used to
perature requirement in wastewater drying is not more than 80 ◦ C which remove the MC.

11
A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. Schematic of lignite solar drying for preheating of lignite before firing (Liu et al., 2017).

From the above studies on various industries, it is observed that solar industrial application on solar drying are listed in Table 6. There were
energy has huge potential in the area of renewable energy sources and it many agricultural materials such as turmeric, red chili, bitter gourd,
can be implemented effectively. Table 4 gives the temperature required garlic, apricot, apple, orange, black turmeric, cassava, ghost chili pep­
and types of dryers used in various industries for drying operation. per, cherry tomato, pineapple, rice, etc. were dried in a solar dryer as
discussed in this article (section 4.1). Solar dried turmeric gave good
5. Economic, environmental and social aspects results in the form of its color, phenolic content, and flavonoid content.
The heat losses such as convection and radiation must be reduced to
The investment cost of the solar dryer is more compared to the increase the system performance. Paraffin wax was used as a TES ma­
conventional method of drying (Bennamoun, 2011) but compared to terial in most of the studies in food drying applications.
traditional OSD drying, it offers several economic advantages such as The marine foods such as shrimps, salted silver jewfish, queenfish,
reducing the fuel cost and emission from fuel. Also, a quality dried and Tilapia fish were dried in solar dryers as discussed in section 4.2.
product increases its market value. Annualized costs, the life cycle of Fish flesh is a very sensitive tissue so that it needs to dry continuously to
dryers, and payback period have been used to examine the economic avoid wastage. Therefore, along with solar energy, other auxiliary
feasibility of dryers but it depends on many factors such as drying ma­ sources of energy such as biomass, industrial waste heat, diesel burner,
terial, geographical location, size, capacity, design factor, system effi­ etc. must be used to dry the tissues round-a-clock so that a better final
ciency, etc. (Kumar et al., 2016; Lingayat et al., 2020b). Also improved product could be achieved. The studies available for solar drying of the
nutritional value, less space occupied by dryers, and higher yield also tea industry are chamomile tea leaves (Amer et al., 2018) and Mexican
should be considered while doing the economic analysis. Emission from tea leaves (Kane et al., 2008) and they showed that the solar-dried tea
the fuel after combustion is responsible for global warming and pollu­ leaves gave good results in terms of color and flavor. Also, the hybrid
tion problem. Various policies and norms are implemented in different solar dryers reduced the drying time up to 20 h (section 4.3).
countries to reduce emissions. Paint curing and polymer coating are the applications of solar drying
The governments suggest running different industries with the help in the automobile industry. The paint curing needs an air temperature
of solar energy and also give subsidies on solar-based systems (Pirasteh range of 80 to 150 ◦ C which is possible using solar energy (Giampieri
et al., 2014b). The power consumed by the fan in the forced greenhouse et al., 2020). The polymer coating is used on the steel surfaces which is
dryer is only 5% of the total energy required. If the fan is also run by used to avoid corrosion. This polymer coating needs to be effectively
solar energy or PV panels, then the total artificial energy required is zero dried and the solar drying concept can be preferred for this application
(Mugi and Chandramohan, 2021). If conventional energy sources (section 4.4). 80% low-quality rubber is produced worldwide because of
assisted with solar energy, then the dryers could save 20–40% of con­ improper drying and therefore, these sheets are sold for low market
ventional fuel energy (Liu et al., 2015). Many researchers reported that price (Breymayer et al., 1993). Smoke drying is the preferred drying
the use of solar dryers could reduce CO2 emissions compared to other method that needs to be used for rubber sheet drying. The temperature
drying techniques (Ekechukwu and Norton, 1999; Hii et al., 2012). As range maintained in the solar dryer is 45 to 60 ◦ C. Solar dryer reduced
per the report of (REN21, 2019), about 20% of the global energy is the drying time of rubber sheets up to 3 days compared to the OSD
generated from renewable energy sources which included wind, solar, method (section 4.5).
biomass, geothermal. Also, renewable policies create employment op­ The developed setup for paper drying (Madhavan and Ramachan­
portunities in the solar energy sector. The use of solar energy would dran, 2015) gives a pay-back period of 95 days only and it’s an alarming
significantly reduce the environmental pollution problem and improve fact that all possible options of solar paper drying trials need to be
public health. encouraged (section 4.6). The sugarcane industry is another sector using
There are some industries which already employed solar energy for solar energy to dry the crushed leaves (bagasse) and waste stem. They
different drying operations and are listed in Table 5. are used for biomass and landfilling purposes as they have good nutri­
ents and importantly used for bio-ethanol production as mentioned in
6. Important findings section 4.7.
Solar energy is used in sewage and wastewater treatment as dew­
All the solar drying methods used in different industrial applications atering cannot eliminate the bacteria in the sludge. As the contents are
were explained in the previous sections. The important findings of each huge, it is better to use solar energy to dry the sludge. The dried solid

12
A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 4 Table 5
The temperature required and various types of dryers used in various industries Industries using solar energy for drying applications (Solar Termal Heat for In­
during the drying processes. dustrial Processes (SHIP), 2019).
Sector Process Temperature Type of solar dryers used Industry Industry Process Type of Temperature
Range (◦ C) name collector (◦ C)

Agricultural Drying 40–200 • Almost all types of natural Agriculture Coopeldos, Coffee drying Solar air 40–45
and food and force convection solar and Food Costa rica heater
industries dryers with and without Duren Coffe, Coffee drying Solar air 40–45
TES Panama Duren collector
Marine Drying 40–80 C ◦
• Solar water heating Keyaqa Walnuts drying Solar air ̴43
industries system with air–water Orchards, USA collector
heat exchanger. Gengli Fruit Fruit drying Solar air 50–70
• Indirect type hybrid FCSD Drying, China collector
dryer Fudholi and Sopian, Malabar Tea Tea drying Solar air ̴35
(2019) Drying, collector
• Solar tunnel dryer (Bala Indonesia
and Mondol, 2001). Carriers and Food drying Solar air ̴43
• Hybrid solar dryer Sons, United collector
(Hamdani et al., 2018) state
Tea industries Drying of tea 40–70 ◦ C • Vacuum-assisted solar AMR dal Mill, Drying of pulse Solar air 65–75
leaf dryers (Pou and Tripathy India collector
2020) Aroma Plant Drying of Solar air
• Indirect type FCSD with Romania, medicinal collector
PV-T collector (Ozturk Romania plants
and Dincer, 2019) Aroma
• Indirect type natural Sonoma Drying of herbs Solar air
convection solar dryer Country Herb collector
(Amer et al., 2018) Exchange,
• Roof-integrated solar USA
dryer (Palaniappan and Grammer Drying of Solar air
Subramanian, 1998) Solar tobacco collector
• FCSD dryer (Kane et al., Argentina,
2008). Argentina
Automobile Surface 20–120 • Solar water heating India Tobacco Conditioning of Solar air ̴95
industry treatment system with air–water Division, India tobacco collector
Drying of 60–150 heat exchanger. Rubber and Inter Rubber Drying of Solar air
finished (Giampieri et al., 2020; Plastic Latex Co. Ltd., natural rubber collector
components Orsato and Wells, 2007). Products Thailand
Rubber Drying of 45–150 • ISD with SAC (Pratoto Concrete Leitt Beton Drying of pre- Solar air
industry rubber sheets et al., 1998). Gmbh, Austria fabricated collector
Preheating 50–70 • Mixed-mode solar dryer concrete
(Dejchanchaiwong et al., components
2016) Furniture Carpenting Wood Drying Flat plate 25–115
• Greenhouse solar dryer Hamminger, collector
(Janjai et al. 2015; Jitjack Austria
et al., 2016) Mining Korner Kvk, Preheating, Flat plate 50–80
Pulp, paper Drying 45–80 • Indirect type natural Austria drying of raw collector
and allied convection solar dryer material
industries (Madhavan and
Ramachandran, 2015)
• Solar water heating 7. Recommendations proposed for better performance
system with air–water
heat exchanger (Hjort and
Thomas, 2014).
After predicting the potential of solar energy for different industrial
Sugarcane Drying of 40–65 • FCSD (Phadkari et al. drying applications, it is important to propose the solar dryer system,
industry bagasse 2017) which should be simple in design, cost-effective, and suitable for drying
• Solar tunnel dryer various food and other products. Different techniques and methods have
(Subahana and Natarajan,
been suggested and implemented for a reduction in drying time and
2016)
Sewage and – 40–65 • Greenhouse dryer better product quality. The assistance of a solar water heater with dryers
industrial (Belloulid et al., 2019: is one of the possible solutions to make the hybrid drying systems using
waste Salihoglu et al. 2007) renewable energy. Various types of solar water heaters of concentrating
• Mixed-mode dryers. ISD type and non-concentrating types are available in the market. They are;
and DSD (Ameri et al.,
2020)
flat plate collectors, evacuated tube collectors, compound parabolic
Lignite coal ~70 Pre-drying of Parabolic dish collector (Liu collectors, parabolic trough collectors, cylindrical trough collectors,
industry lignite coal et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2018) parabolic dish reflectors, heliostat field reflectors, linear Fresnel re­
flectors, etc. These collectors can provide a temperature range of 30 to
500 ◦ C (Mekhilef et al., 2020; Pranesh et al., 2019). The assistance of
waste can be used for the landfill. Also, the storage, transportation, and
solar drying systems with a water storage system and water–air heat
handling costs of dried sludges were low (section 4.8) compared to raw
exchanger can make the dryer more efficient for a wide range of ap­
wastes. MC in lignite/coal reduces the combustion characteristics and
plications in the area of solar drying Fig. 5 shows a generalized technic
also create problem in lignite/coal units. The solar-dried lignite/coal
for thermal energy conservation that can be implemented for various
produced high fuel value and the boiler efficiency was improved as
drying applications. Solar collectors are used to absorbing solar radia­
explained in section 4.9.
tion. Fluid flowing through the collectors absorbs the heat from the
collector and is stored in the tank. The heat energy retrieved from the

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A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 6 Table 6 (continued )

Important findings from the literature. S. Authors (year) Research outcomes and findings
S. Authors (year) Research outcomes and findings No
No
A greenhouse dryer can be used for the mass
Agricultural and food industries production of dried rubber sheets.
1 Lakshmi et al. (2018) Drying air temperature is the highest (65 ◦ C) Pulp, paper and allied industries
among all other research works. 1 Madhavan and Handmade paper is dried in a solar dryer.
The collector efficiency is low (12%). Ramachandran (2015) It helped to reduce the drying time and gave
2 Ndukwu et al. (2017) Dryer with TES material of Na2SO4⋅10H2O better quality paper compared to OSD.
consumed energy of 3.34 kWh per kg removal Solar dryers were functional during day time
of MC from the products. even there is no sunlight and more humidity.
NCSD integrated with TES effectively 2 Hjort and Thomas (2014) A solar-heated hot water flat tank could be a
minimized various heat losses which lead to better and efficient option for paper drying.
efficient energy utilization. Experiments were performed for different
3 Zachariah et al. (2020) A mixed-mode solar dryer integrated with PCM operating conditions and paper types.
produced an increase in ηd and reduction in It can be made functional in larger-scale dryers.
drying time. Sugarcane industry
It took 10 h time to completely dry the product. 1 Subahana and Natarajan A tunnel dryer with TES material of soil and
4 Baniasadi et al. (2017) At the end of the drying process, 25% of MC is (2016) preheated air gave a better moisture removal
available inside the product (apricot slices) rate than a simple tunnel dryer.
Add 2 more important results. 2 Vijayaraj and Saravanan The solution was used to approximate and
5 Atalay et al. (2017) Effective utilization of waste heat (about 50 to (2008) quantify the different heat and mass transfer
60%) is possible with this system. phenomena in bagasse for different conditions
The drying process took 6 h to completely dry of drying.
the apple slices. Sewage and industrial waste
6 Atalay (2019) Improved drying efficiency (34%) and SMER of 1 Ameri et al. (2020) ISD process is always better than DSD process
0.505 kg of water/kWh under the same working conditions.
New parameters such as waste exergy ratio, Thermodynamic characteristics of the drying of
sustainability index, and improvement sludge process were introduced to find out the
potential were introduced. nature and disorderness of drying process.
Energy and exergy efficiencies decreased up to 2 Belloulid et al. (2019) The developed solar dryer for sludge and waste
68.37%. is fit for arid regions.
Marine industries The drying time saved in the solar dryer is 13 h
1 Murali et al. (2020) Drying shrimps is a very fast process compared in summer and 8 h in winter compared to OSD
to all other drying products. It took only 6 h Lignite coal industry
time to dry 50 kg of shrimps. 1 Liu et al. (2017) Drying of lignite/coal with solar energy
Drying and collector efficiencies were also increased the fuel value and the overall
improved up to 37.09% and 42.37%, combustion efficiency of lignite coal.
respectively. The solar-to-electric conversion efficiency was
2 Bala and Mondol (2001) A new drying method (solar tunnel dryer) was more than 34%.
introduced to dry the salted silver Jew fish. 2 Xu et al. (2018) Solar-lignite hybrid power generation system
The setup saved the product from rain, dirt, helped to increase the boiler efficiency by 1.2%
dust, and insects and also maintained the and saved lignite expenditure cost.
quality. Overall energy efficiency increased by 0.5%.
3 Fudholi and Sopian (2019) The drying efficiency of the system is improved
up to 29% using a hybrid drying system (solar
+ auxiliary diesel burner) to dry salted silver hot water (from the tank) transferred to the drying chamber and the
Jew fish. materials can be dried.
The specific energy consumption (SEC) is
This approach can be explored in all drying applications in in­
reduced to 2.92 kWh / kg of moisture removal.
4 Hamdani et al. (2018) The cost incurred to fabricate a hybrid solar dustries. Integration of efficient utilization of solar energy with other
dryer to dry 100 kg of fish is $ 1870. renewable energy systems such as photovoltaic-thermal, dryer with TES
Dry fish production capacity was 12,000 kg per system, solar and biofuel can improve the efficiency of the dryers. To
year, selling price $ 3.3 / kg, obtained IRR = make the solar drying system 100% renewable, it can be assisted with a
18.61%, NPV = $ 21.091 and break-even point
= 2.6 years.
ground source heat pump system. (Esen, 2006; Esen et al., 2007a) This
Tea industries needs detailed research in depth which can provide a positive impact on
1 Amer et al. (2018) Solar dryer with reflector, thermal storage drying efficiency. Already a lot of mathematical (analytical and nu­
system and two-chamber dryer can be used to merical) studies are available but most of the experimental studies are
increase the drying rate and capacity of dryer.
limited up to laboratory scale. So, it’s another research area where solar
2 Palaniappan and The roof-integrated solar dryer can be used
Subramanian (1998) along with conventional energy sources to dryers can be explored on large scale for enhancement of production
reduce the annual fuel consumption by about capacities.
25%. A cost-effective approach by considering the capital and operational
Automobile industry costs along with solar-based technologies is necessary for the effective
1 Giampieri et al. (2020) The paint drying in automobile surface is
performed with a temperature limit of 50 to
implementation of dryers. The PCM is found to be a better option in the
80 ◦ C. TES system of solar dryers. The efficiency of solar dryers can be
Water-based paints took 3 to 8 h of drying time improved by adding nano-materials in PCM which is used to increase the
compared to solvent-based paints (2 to 5 h). thermal conductivity of PCM. Even though the solar energy approach
Rubber industry
looks simple, a deep understanding of complex drying operations is
1 Breymayer et al. (1993) Smoke-assisted solar drying can be used for the
better quality of natural rubber. necessary for large-scale applications for the success of the developed
2 Dejchanchaiwong et al. A mixed-mode solar dryer produced better drying systems. The automation of the complete drying process can
(2016) results for rubber sheet drying than the ISD improve the quality of material and drying efficiency. By considering all
dryer. these advantages of solar-based drying systems, the government and
3 Janjai et al. (2015).
private sectors should encourage the researchers.

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A. Lingayat et al. Solar Energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 5. Solar drying systems assisted with solar water heater and water–air heat exchanger.

8. Conclusions References

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glish, Department of Humanities and Social Science, NIT Warangal,
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