Document Type
Article
Rights
Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence
Disciplines
2. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
Abstract
Drying reduces the moisture content of harvested crops thus slowing decay processes to enable longerterm storage. Solar dryers contain the crop being dried, to enhance solar energy collection incurring lower crop losses than are associated with open-sun drying and recurrent costs than are inherent to uses of fossil-fuels for drying. The influences of key environmental, operational and design parameters for solar dryers are discussed including: (i) psychrometry of drying processes and ambient conditions, (ii) how initial crop properties are converted to final desired product attributes, (iii) feasibility of using powered components such as fans and (iv) air-heating solar collector selection.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2017.05.066
Recommended Citation
Tomar, V, Tiwari, G. & Norton, B. (2017). Solar dryers for tropical food preservation: thermophysics of crops, systems and components. Solar Energy, 154, pp.2-13. doi:10.1016/j.solener.2017.05.066
Publication Details
Solar Energy, 154, pp.2-13