Review of solar dryers with latent heat storage systems for agricultural products

Drying of agricultural food products is one of the most attractive and cost-effective application of solar energy as it becomes a potentially viable substitute for fuel-wood in much of the developing world. The intermittent nature of the solar energy, which is the main source of energy in solar drying, is indeed one of the major shortcomings of the solar drying system can be alleviated by storing excess energy during the peak time and use it in off sun hours or when the energy availability is inadequate. Developing efficient and inexpensive energy storage devices in solar dryers is as important as developing new sources of energy and reduce the time between energy supply and energy demand, thereby playing a vital role in energy conservation. It improves the energy systems by smoothening the output and thus increasing the reliability. Therefore, in this paper, an attempt has been taken to summarize the investigation of the solar drying system incorporating with phase change materials (PCMs) for drying agricultural food products. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.