Recent developments in solar drying technology of food and agricultural products: A review

The potential of climate-resilient energy practices depends on the integration of sustainable energy with energy storage, such as solar energy. Solar energy offers desirable thermal energy for several purposes, such as indus -trial, domestic, and agri-food preservation. This review provides a comprehensive report on the available design of solar dryers and other critical aspects and a summary of the various uses of different agri-food. Several recent advances, challenges and limitations in large-scale solar energy drying are presented. This review provides valuable information on solar dryers' current state to facilitate the development of this renewable, green, sus-tainable food drying technology. It shows that solar drying technology could serve as an energy-efficient dehydration technology at a small (size) scale to produce shelf-stable products. The review also presents important information for design considerations, dimensioning of dryers and improving new technical ap-proaches for solar dryers. Next-generation solar dryers should be examined extensively to obtain a suitable-scale dehydration approach that requires hybrid drying functions, such as solar dehydration during the day and forced air convection dehydration at night.

Automated summary

This review provides comprehensive information on the design and applications of solar dryers, as well as the challenges and advancements in large-scale solar energy drying. It offers valuable insights for the development of sustainable food drying technology.