A review of the indirect solar dryer with sensible heat storage mediums
Author(s):
Tan Sang Le†, Tri Hieu Le‡ *, Minh Tuan Pham‡†*
Affiliation(s):
† Institute of Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH), Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam
‡ Institute of Maritime, Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam
‡† School of Transportation Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The quality of agricultural products will have deteriorated as the preserved technology is inadequate and the storage process is not guaranteed. postharvest losses have been overcome with advanced techniques in production processes. Drying is applied to preserve food as well as agricultural goods. Utilizing the sun’s energy for drying has been performed historically. Different designs of solar dryers with a variety of capacities are available in the agricultural sector. Among them, an Indirect solar dryer (ISD) is potential for food products however its drawback is unable to work after sunset. Techniques extend its operation at off sunshine hours for performance enhancement have not been reviewed in detail. This review aims to assess the features along with the advantages of sensible heat storage material (SHSM) in ISD. Common types of ISD with SHSM are presented and the review, discussion, and tabulation of obtained findings on ISD with various sensible heat material have been carried out. It is potential to develop a solar dryer system that employed thermal energy storage materials which have high thermal efficiency and appropriate cost and substitute possibly to fossil fuel in both the developing and developed countries. The storage unit usage, Drying process in ISD for agricultural food can be conducted at off sunshine hours, which was impossible with a conventional solar dryer. As a result, solar drying agricultural products with sensible heat storage materials benefit the energy conservation as well as the performance of solar systems.