ISSN (Online) 2456-1290

International Journal of Engineering Research in Mechanical and Civil Engineering

(IJERMCE)
Vol 2, Issue 2, February 2017

Review on Direct, Indirect and Mixed Mode Solar

Dryer
[1]
Mr. Avesahemad S.N. Husainy, [2] Mr. Sumit G. Bardiya, [3] Mr. Sujit V. Kumbhar, [4] Mr. Shailesh K. Kokate,
[5]
Mr. Shitalkumar. J. Patil
[1], [2], [3], [4], [5]
, Faculty, Mechanical Engineering Department,
Sharad Institute of Technology College of Engineering, Yadrav

Abstract- India is the agricultural dominated country. Food problem arises in most developing countries mainly due to the
inability to preserve food surpluses rather than due to low production. Hence preservation of agricultural food/crop is very
essential to avoid the wastage. Solar energy is abundantly available with us but because of frequently cloud, drying of agricultural
product is not effective for special crop like grapes, fig, turmeric, etc. In order to preserve and protect food crop from bacterial
growth solar dryer is to be designed. Drying is the process in which moisture of the product can be removed without hampering the
nutrients. Mostly direct and indirect mode solar dryer is used to drying the agricultural product. Natural and forced convection
solar dryers are used for so many agricultural products. There is tremendous research is going on in solar drying technology to
improve the performance of solar dryer. Experimentally it is proved that solar drying technology is economical viable and possible.
Thermal energy can be store in solar drying system to improve the performance of solar dryer using different phase change
material. In this review paper, we revived direct mode, indirect mode and mixed mode solar dryer for various agricultural crop.

Key Words: Solar Dryer, Agricultural Crop, Thermal energy storage.

harvest losses and low quality of dried products associated

with traditional open sun-drying methods [1].
I. INTRODUCTION
Food is a basic need for all human beings along II CLASSIFICATION OF SOLAR DRYER
with air and water. Food problem arises in most developing
countries mainly due to the inability to preserve food Solar Drying is classified in so many ways according to way
surpluses rather than due to low production. Agricultural of heat transfer, according to type of product and their
yields are usually more than the immediate consumption moisture content and according to drying time required.
needs, resulting in wastage of food surpluses during the Basically there are two types of solar dryer,
short harvest periods and scarcity during post-harvest
period. Hence, a reduction in the post-harvest losses of food 1. Natural convection solar dryer
products should have considerable effect on the economy of 2. Forced convection solar dryer
these countries. Several process technologies have been
employed on an industrial scale to preserve food products; But solar drying methods are usually classified to four
the major ones are canning, freezing, and dehydration. categories according to the mechanism by which the energy,
Farmers dry food products by natural sun drying, an used to remove moisture, is transferred to the product:
advantage being that solar energy is available free of cost,
but there are several disadvantages which are responsible for 1. Sun or natural dryers: The material to be dried is placed
degradation and poor quality of the end product. Certain directly under unfriendly climate conditions like solar
variety of food products are not supposed to be dried by radiation, ambient air temperature, relative humidity.
natural sun drying because they lose certain basic desirable
characteristics. Experiments carried out in various countries 2. Direct solar dryers: In these dryers, the material to be
have clearly shown that solar dryers can be effectively used dried is placed in an enclosure, with transparent covers or
for drying agricultural product. Solar drying has been used side panels. This heat evaporates the moisture from the
since time immemorial to dry grapes, turmeric, seeds, fruits, drying product and promotes the natural circulation of
meat, fish, wood, and other agricultural products. Solar drying air.
drying of agricultural products in enclosed structures by
forced convection is an attractive way of reducing post-

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 ISSN (Online) 2456-1290
International Journal of Engineering Research in Mechanical and Civil Engineering
(IJERMCE)
Vol 2, Issue 2, February 2017
the solar air heater furnishes the energy required for the
drying process.

III LITERATURE REVIEW

1. M. Mohanraj, P. Chandrasekar [4] the performance of

an indirect forced convection solar drier integrated with heat
storage material was designed, fabricated and investigated
for chili drying. The drier with heat storage material enables
Fig. 1 Schematic of Direct mode solar dryers [2] to maintain consistent air temperature inside the drier. The
Here sun light fall on the surface of glass then inclusion of heat storage material also increases the drying
things happen fist is some light is absorbed some light is time by about 4 hrs. per day. The chili was dried from initial
Reflected back from glass some light is transmitted. moisture content 72.8% to the final moisture content about
Dimension of box used is 1 m length and 0.3 Width. 9.2% and 9.7% (wet basis) in the bottom and top trays
Temperature recorded in this cabin dryer is 80⁰ C. respectively.

3. Indirect solar dryers: In these dryers, air is first heated in

a solar air heater and then ducted to the drying chamber.

Fig.4 Pictorial View of Experimental Setup.

They concluded that, forced convection solar

Fig. 2 Schematic of Indirect mode solar dryers drier is more suitable for producing high quality dried chilli
for small holders. Thermal efficiency of the solar drier was
An indirect type of solar dryer with forced air circulation estimated to be about 21% with specific moisture extraction
can be used to produce superior quality products acceptable rate of about 0.87 kg/kW h.
in the international market.
2. S.M. Shalaby et al. [5] evaluated thermal performance of
4. Mixed-type solar dryers: an indirect forced convection solar dryer to dry mint and
thymus (Figure-13). They tested fourteen mathematical
models of thin layer drying & found that Midilli and Kucuk
model is convenient to describe the thin layer solar drying of
mint. However, the Page and modified Page models were
found to be the best among others for describing the drying
curves of thymus. Based on the results obtained for the solar
drying of thymus and mint, they found that the drying times
of thymus and mint depend on the mass of the drying
product and temperature of the drying air.

Fig. 3 Schematic of Mixed mode solar dryers [3]

The combined action of the solar radiation incident

directly on the material to be dried and the air pre-heated in

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 ISSN (Online) 2456-1290
International Journal of Engineering Research in Mechanical and Civil Engineering
(IJERMCE)
Vol 2, Issue 2, February 2017
The designed dryer was integrated with a Phase Change
Material to extend the use of dryer in the evening/night
hours. The effect of air mass flow rate on moisture content,
moisture ratio, drying rate, drying time and dryer efficiency
has been evaluated for grapes. At the same time effect of
thermal energy storage on drying time on grapes also
evaluated with and without incorporation of thermal energy
storage with variation in mass flow rate of air.
Fig.5 Pictorial View of Experimental Setup. 5. Mohamed Zayed, Abd elnaby Kabeel, Alsaied Khalil, S.
M. Shalaby [8] In this research, the thermal performance of
They also inferred that the abnormal drying flat, finned and v-corrugated plate solar air heater is
behavior of thymus needs further study at different mass investigated experimentally. The solar air heater is designed
flow rates and various temperatures of the drying air. to be easy to replace the absorber plates from one to another
one. Comparisons between the temperature difference of air
3. Sharma et al. [6] presented a research paper titled across the heater and thermal efficiency of the flat, finned
“Review on thermal energy storage with phase change and v-corrugated plate solar air heater were presented.
materials and applications.” The use of a latent heat storage Effect of change the mass flow rate of air on outlet air
system using phase change materials (PCMs) is an effective temperature and thermal efficiency of the heater were also
way of storing thermal energy and has the advantages of studied at mass flow rates are 0.062, 0.028 & 0.009 kg/s.
high-energy storage density and the isothermal nature of the Experimental results showed that the maximum value of
storage process. PCMs have been widely used in latent heat outlet temperature of the v corrugated plate solar air heater
thermal storage systems for heat pumps, solar engineering, increased by 5 and 3.50C compared with flat and finned
and spacecraft thermal control applications. There are large plate when the mass flow rate is 0.062 kg/s, respectively and
numbers of PCMs that melt and solidify at a wide range of it increased by 8 and 5.50C when the mass flow rate 0.009
temperatures, making them attractive in a number of kg / s.
applications. This paper also summarizes the investigation
and analysis of the available thermal energy storage systems
incorporating PCMs for use in different applications.

4. Avesahemad Husainy [7] designed and develops forced

convection solar dryer for grapes with thermal energy
storage by using paraffin wax. In this work indirect cum
mixed mode forced convection solar grape dryer with
thermal energy storage has been developed and tested
experimentally. The grapes with pretreatment have been
dried with developed solar dryer.
Fig. 7 Pictorial View of Experimental Setup.

The average ambient conditions are 30ºC air

temperature and 15% relative humidity with daily global
solar radiation incident on horizontal surface of about
20MJ/m2/day. The weather conditions considered are of
Khartoum, Sudan. A prototype of the dryer is so designed
and constructed that has a maximum collector area of
1.03m2. This prototype dryer will be used in experimental
drying tests under various loading conditions.

6. S. Dhanushkodi1, Vincent H. Wilson [9] Develops

Fig.6 Pictorial View of Experimental Setup. biomass dryer for cashewnut. The dryer is capable of
producing hot air continuously with temperature ranging

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 ISSN (Online) 2456-1290
International Journal of Engineering Research in Mechanical and Civil Engineering
(IJERMCE)
Vol 2, Issue 2, February 2017
between 70 to 75°C. Performance analysis showed that the Moisture content of red chilli was reduced from 2.85to 0.05
moisture reduction from 9% to 4% was achieved within 7 kg/kg(db) in 20 h in solar tunnel drier and it took 32 h to
hours in biomass drying and it had taken almost 15 hours in reduce the moisture content to 0.09 and 0.40 kg/kg (db) in
open sun drying. The system efficiency of the dryer was improved and conventional sun drying methods,
found to be 9.5%. respectively. In case of green chilli, about 0.06 kg/kg(db)
moisture content was obtained from an initial moisture
content of 7.6 kg/kg(db) in 22 h in solar tunnel drier and 35
h to reach the moisture content to 0.10 and 0.70 kg/kg(db) in
improved and conventional sun drying methods,
respectively. Average air temperature rise in drier was about
21.62 ºC.

8. Arpita Mehta, Sudhir Jain [11] developed An indirect

forced convection solar drier with thermal storage has been
developed and tested its performance for drying ginger
under the metrological conditions of Udaipur, India.
Agricultural food materials can be dried at late evening,
while late evening drying was not possible with a normal
solar dryer. So that, solar dryer with storage unit is very
Fig.8 Pictorial View of Experimental Setup. beneficial for the humans and as well as for the energy
conservation.
The main features of the dryer are to maintain
uniform temperature across the tray by using chimney effect
and an acceptable system efficiency. The dryer has been
designed as a substitute to the electrical and conventional
dryers. It is simple in construction and it is suitable for small
scale cashew industries present in both rural and urban areas
of India.

7. M.A. Hossaina and B.K. Bala [10] were used a mixed

mode type forced convection solar tunnel drier to dry hot
red and green chillies under the tropical weather conditions
of Bangladesh as shown in figure 8.which consists (1.air Fig.10 Pictorial View of Experimental Setup.
inlet 2.fan;3.solar module;4.solar collector;5.side metal
frame;6.outlet of the Collector 7.wooden support; 8.plastic The system consisted of a flat plate solar air
net; 9.roof structure for supporting the plastic cover; 10.base collector, heat storage unit, a drying chamber and a DC fan.
structure for supporting The dryer;11.rolling bar; 12,outlet Drying experiments have been performed at an air flow rate
of the drying tunnel.)The drier had a loading capacity of 80 of 0.0025 kg/s. drying of ginger rhizomes in a forced
kg of fresh chillies. convection solar drier reduces the moisture content from
around 84 per cent (wet basis) to the final moisture content
about 9.63 per cent in 36 h. Average drier efficiency was
estimated to be about 30 per cent.

9. V. Shanmugam et al. [11] incorporated a CaCl2 based

regenerative solid desiccant bed into the dryer for drying
green peas (Figure-15). The results of their tests have shown
that the integration of desiccant unit with solar dryer
continues the drying of products in the off-sunshine hours
and improves the quality of drying product. At a given air
Fig. 9 Schematic of Mixed mode solar dryers flow rate of 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03 kg/m2s the product dries to
its equilibrium moisture content at about 22, 18 and 14

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 ISSN (Online) 2456-1290
International Journal of Engineering Research in Mechanical and Civil Engineering
(IJERMCE)
Vol 2, Issue 2, February 2017
hours, respectively. Also, more uniform drying of product in 3. This paper presents the current research in this particular
all the trays is achieved during desiccant drying. field, with the main focus being on the assessment of the
thermal properties of various PCMs. The heat storage
applications used as a part of solar water-heating systems,
solar air heating systems, solar cooking, solar green house,
space heating and cooling application for buildings, off-peak
electricity storage systems, waste heat recovery systems.

4. The following conclusions have been arrived at, from the

experimental investigation carried out in the present work
on solar grape dryer.

 Dried grape (Raisins) production is possible with

developed solar dryer in much shorter time. An
Fig.11 Pictorial View of Experimental Setup. indirect type of solar dryer with forced air circulation
can be used to produce superior quality raisins
They modified the design further and incorporated acceptable in the international market.
a reflective mirror to improve the regeneration of the  The drying experiment conducted with grapes and it
desiccant and tested it to dry green peas and pineapple. The was found that the complete drying process could be
test results were then conducted with and without the attained with 30 hours, which is very less compared
inclusion of the reflective mirror. They concluded that, with with open sun drying
the inclusion of a reflective mirror on the desiccant bed the  Incorporation of thermal energy storage system
drying potential increases considerably. The useful reduces drying time remarkably in terms of sunshine
temperature rise of about 100C was achieved with mirror, hours. With implementation of thermal energy
which reduced the drying time by 2 hours for green peas and storage the drying time for particular day can be
4 hours for pineapple slices. extended from sunshine hours to non-sunshine hours.
Hence it increase the quantity of products dried.
IV CONCLUDING REMARK FROM LITERATURE  With increase in mass flow rate of air the outlet air
REVIEW temperature of collector is going to decrease which
reduces the drying temperature required and thus
1. The performance of an indirect forced convection solar increases drying time
drier integrated with heat storage material was designed,  After all this work put forward extension of
fabricated and investigated for chili drying. The chili was renewable energy based drying technology in the
dried from initial moisture content 72.8% to the final field of grape drying so that small scale farmers can
moisture content about 9.2% and 9.7% (wet basis) in the be economically benefited.
bottom and top trays respectively. It could be concluded
that, forced convection solar drier is more suitable for 5. The v-corrugated collector was found to be the most
producing high quality dried chili for small holders. efficient collector and the flat plate collector to be the least
efficient. The v-corrugated solar air heater is 8 –14.5% more
2. Based on the results obtained for the solar drying of efficient than the flat plate heater and 6 – 10.5% more
thymus and mint, it was found that the drying times of efficient than the finned plate heater, respectively under the
thymus and mint depend on the mass of the drying product considered configurations and operating conditions.
and temperature of the drying air. Both thymus and mint are
exhibit the constant and failing rate periods of solar drying 6. A biomass dryer was designed, constructed and tested at
of agricultural products. It was found that, Midilli and PRIST University, Puduchery Campus, India for drying
Kucuk model is convenient to describe the thin layer solar cashew kernel. On the basis of the experimental results the
drying of mint. However, the Page and modified Page following conclusions are drawn.
models were found to be the best among others for
describing the drying curves of thymus.

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International Journal of Engineering Research in Mechanical and Civil Engineering
(IJERMCE)
Vol 2, Issue 2, February 2017

 The developed system is suitable for drying maximum Mixed mode solar dryers are more efficient, but, they have
of 40 kilograms of cashew in one batch. disadvantage of exposing the products to solar radiation.
 The required air temperature of 65-75°C was obtained Natural convection indirect mode is very much effective
with minimum fuel consumption of 0.5-0.75 kg/hr. than mixed mode dryer but it requires more time for drying
 The biomass dryer can dry cashew kernel from a the vegetables. But indirect mode forced convection solar
moisture content of 9% w.b. reduced to 3% w.b.within dryer is very effective than others because time required for
7 hours. drying is very less than others. The introduction of heat
 Maximum biomass system/overall efficiency of 9.5 % storage material like paraffin wax in the air heater enhances
was observed. the rate of drying and reduces drying time. The use of a
 The dryer does not depend on whether condition and latent heat storage system using phase change materials
can be operated maximum 3 batches per day. (PCMs) is an effective way of storing thermal energy and
has the advantages of high-energy storage density. Drying
7. The solar tunnel drier can be used to dry up to 80 kg of time can be further reduced using the same system with heat
fresh chillies. In all the cases, the use of this drier led to storage material. The v-corrugated collector was found to be
considerable reduction in drying time in comparison to that the most efficient collector and the flat plate collector to be
of conventional sun drying, and the products dried using this the least efficient. Solar dryers have been reported to
drier were of better quality as compared to their improve the taste, nutrition, and final value of produce
conventional sun dried counterparts. This drier can be easily compared to traditional drying method. Solar dryer is
constructed using locally available materials. This can be economical viable for all kinds of product/crops like grapes,
operated by a photovoltaic module independent of electrical fig, turmeric, chilli, ginger, mango, fish, leafy vegetables,
grid. The photovoltaic system has an advantage because the etc.
temperature of the drying air in the drier is automatically REFERENCES
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International Journal of Engineering Research in Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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Vol 2, Issue 2, February 2017
GRAPE DRYER WITH THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE BY
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