Abstract:

Abstract: Solar dryers use the sun's energy to produce hot air, which they then use to dry a variety of foods and agricultural products. Solar dryers have the limitation that they cannot operate constantly in the absence of sunlight. Solar dryers are coupled with thermal energy storage technologies to achieve continuous drying. A solar collector and a place to lay sliced potatoes are the two basic parts of indirect type solar dryers. The quality of the finished product would also rise due to its rapid moisture removal. In the current study, a single-pass indirect type forced convection solar dryer was built. To improve the solar dryer's performance during the times when the sun isn't shining, paraffin was added to the solar collector as a phase-changing material. Thermal energy can be stored in solar dryers as sensible, latent, or a mixture of the two. The numerous sensible and latent storage units, materials, and direct, indirect, and mixed-mode forced convection dryer types are all thoroughly described on this page. We go into great depth on various dryer types, dried commodities, working conditions, materials utilized for sensible and latent heat storage, and their results. The essay goes into great length on the use of thermal storage units in solar dryers. The upcoming difficulties and suggestions for the choice, use, and testing of the thermal storage unit for various solar dryers are also covered. This review study aims to provide an overview of past and present research on materials used as sensible and latent heat storage in solar dryers for drying agricultural food items. Agricultural food items may now be dried in the late afternoon with the storage unit; this was previously impossible with a traditional sun dryer. A solar dryer with a storage container is therefore excellent for preserving energy and assisting people

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