Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Review

A comparative analysis on the uniformity enhancement methods of

solar thermal drying
Shaymaa Husham Abdulmalek a, Morteza Khalaji Assadi a, *, Hussain H. Al-Kayiem a,
Ali Ahmed Gitan b
a
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Faculty of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department, Solar Thermal Advanced Research Center, Bandar Seri
Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia
b
Tikrit University, Faculty of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department, Tikrit, Iraq

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The uniformity of solar drying process and the quality of the product are inter-related parameters. Drying
Received 2 November 2017 uniformity is influenced by the significant process air properties which are temperature, humidity and
Received in revised form velocity. Accordingly, solar drying uniformity may be improved by integration with dehumidification
13 December 2017
system and/or optimizing the dryer design. These concepts were reviewed extensively in this paper by
Accepted 11 January 2018
Available online 3 February 2018
brush up the solar thermal hybrid dryers, the performance of solar assisted desiccant systems for
dehumidification of drying air, the effect of geometrical parameters on drying performance, and the
drying performance of different products. In the context of desiccant systems, the performance of drying
Keywords:
Hybrid solar thermal energy
is influenced by desiccant material, dehumidifier design and regeneration technique used. While, the
Drying issue of solar dryer design is related to drying chamber geometrical parameters, considering multiple
Desiccant drying chambers, and modeling and optimization of dryer design. Coming out with this comprehensive
Uniform drying review may motivate to enhance the quality of product and drying performance in terms of cost and
time.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104
2. Solar thermal hybrid drying systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104
3. Performance of solar assisted desiccant dryers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105
3.1. Effect of desiccant material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105
3.1.1. Solid desiccant material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105
3.1.2. Liquid desiccant material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1106
3.2. Modeling effect of desiccant system on performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1106
3.3. Effect of dehumidifier design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1106
4. Regeneration techniques of desiccant system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1106
4.1. Integrated desiccantesolar collector regeneration system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107
4.2. Waste heat energy desiccant regeneration system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107
4.3. Solar air heater desiccant regeneration system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108
4.4. Solar water heater desiccant regeneration system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108
4.5. Ultrasonic desiccant regeneration system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108
4.6. Liquid desiccant regeneration systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108
4.7. Phase change materials regeneration system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: shaymaa_g03363@utp.edu.my (S. Husham Abdulmalek),
morteza.assadi@utp.edu.my (M. Khalaji Assadi), hussain_kayiem@utp.edu.my
(H.H. Al-Kayiem), aliagitan@tu.edy.iq, aliahmedeng1@gmail.com (A.A. Gitan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.01.060
0360-5442/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1104 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115

5. The effect of geometrical parameters on uniform drying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108

5.1. Drying chamber design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108
5.1.1. Conventional chimney type drying chamber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108
5.1.2. Unconventional drying chamber design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109
5.2. The consideration of multi chamber dryers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111
5.3. Modeling and optimization of geometrical parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111
6. Drying products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1112
7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1114
Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1114
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1114

1. Introduction with thermal back-up unit (TBU). The thermal back-up unit consists
of burner and heat exchanger. The solar part is working with
The ability of save the food or any agricultural/fishery products, availability of solar energy within the day. The biomass heater is
especially in countries with various seasons, is essential for long working when the absence of solar energy to maintain the conti-
time storage and preservation. In developing countries, lack of nuity of drying process with uniform level of process air temper-
suitable technology, such lack of marketing channels, improper ature. Maintaining uniform process air temperature is one objective
transportation, high post-harvest losses, etc., causing a food loss of enhancing the solar drying uniformity and performance.
from 10 to 40% [1]. To save the food for long time without deteri- A hybrid drying system was investigated experimentally with
oration, it should be dried and the moisture content should be two new modifications of exhaust heat re-injection technique and
reduced to a certain preselected level. Such drying process requires thermal recovery sub-dryer [5], the experimental results demon-
large energy consumption in terms of electrical energy or fusil fuel strated that the dryer in hybrid mode drying shortened drying time
burning to supply the necessary thermal energy. Drying process is by 11.2% compared with solar mode drying. The dryer in solar
an energetic intensive activity and plays a significant role in many drying mode shortened the drying time by 76% compared with
industrial applications such as food, textile and paper and in many open sun drying. In thermal mode, the exhaust heat reinjection unit
other processing industries. One of the main heat sources that enhanced the overall drying efficiency of red chilli by 6%. In the
employed to reduce the conventional energy consumption for hybrid and thermal modes, the recovery sub-dryer enhanced the
drying process is the solar energy. Basically, this method has been overall drying efficiency of drying ginger by 23.7% and 30.7%,
utilized traditionally for food drying purpose since long time. In respectively. Furthermore, the recovery sub-dryer enhanced the
many countries, open sun drying (OSD) is used in a small farms to overall drying efficiency of the system with respect to drying red
produce 80% of dried food [2]. There are several disadvantage of chilli by 25.84% and 29.7% through the hybrid and thermal modes,
open sun drying like dirt, wind, animals, insects and the occasional respectively.
rain [3]. Solar dryer systems (SDS) have been used instead of open Design, development and evaluation were performed for an
sun dryer this system is supply renewable energy and environ- indirect kind of natural convection solar dryer of integrated
mental friendly. Various studies reported that national energy collector-storage solar and biomass backup heaters [6], The testing
consumption for industrial drying operations ranging from 10 to was carried out in three modes of operation (biomass, solar and
15% for USA, Canada, France, and UK and around 20e25% for solarebiomass), The values on average of the final-day moisture
Denmark and Germany [4]. pickup efficiency were 15%, 13% and 11% in the solar, solarebiomass,
Significant energy saving can be achieved as efficient drying and biomass modes of operation, respectively. A natural convection
systems are designed by employing new techniques such as low solar greenhouse dryer combined with a biomass thermal back-up
energy dehumidification systems. Many previous works have come heater was investigated experimentally [7], The material used for
out with various approaches in order to reduce the energy con- the flue gas ducts is 2 mm thick galvanized iron sheet metal. These
sumption and enhance the performance of drying process. How- ducts allow for the passage of the hot flue gas from the heater into
ever, over 85% of industrial dryers are of the convective type with the air being circulated for drying the product in the dryer. The gas
hot air or direct combustion gases as the drying medium [4]. then passes by way of the chimney to the outside atmosphere. It
Within the framework of green technology performance was found that, for drying coconuts it required 88 h in open sun
development, solar drying uniformity is an important aspect that drying, 44 h in solar mode, 30 h in thermal mode, and 26 h in hybrid
requires extensive investigation. The objective of the current paper solar thermal mode.
is to develop one reference platform for the researchers who are A hybrid forced convection dryer system, which combines an
intending to develop the uniformity and product quality of solar unglazed transpired solar collector, rock bed, and a biomass gasifier
drying based on the temperature, the humidity and the velocity of stove with heat exchanger to provide the heat to the drying
the process air. Also, this work aims to presents the relevant chamber was designed and study experimentally. The system was
techniques to these air properties which have a significant effect on evaluated by drying chilli using air at 60
C and flow rate of 90 m3/h.
the uniformity and performance of solar drying. These techniques The temperature of hot air supplied was stable at 60 ± 3
C for
include solar thermal hybrid drying, solar assisted desiccant dryers about 21 h during the entire drying duration [8].
(SADD) and drying chamber design. Also, the paper presents The common practice was concluded in the hybrid solar dryers
comparative that allow the researchers to have insight information which are backed up with thermal source is to exhaust the flue gas
on the various enhancing techniques attempted previously. to the ambient [9], This flue gases are still hot and carry consider-
able amount of thermal energy as waste. Also, the thermal energy
2. Solar thermal hybrid drying systems of flue gas from a biomass thermal backup unit was utilized in
terms of heat recovery criteria. A prototype of hybrid solar-thermal
The hybrid solar thermal dryer consists of solar dryer connected drying system was coupled with recovery dryer to yield a
 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115 1105

combination of the main dryer and the recovery dryer. The com-
bination was investigated experimentally to evaluate the enhanced
performance compared to the system without recovery. The in-
vestigations were conducted under two operational modes, hybrid
mode (day and night) and thermal mode alone (night). Red chilli
was utilized as drying material. The results of the thermal mode
showed that the overall drying efficiency of the dryer was increased
from 9.9% without recovery dryer to 12.9% with the recovery dryer.
The overall drying efficiency of the hybrid drying without recovery
dryer was 10.3%, while it was increased to overall drying efficiency
of 13% in the case of using hybrid dryer and recovery. The
enhancement of the overall drying efficiency due to the recovery
dryer was 25.84% in the hybrid day and night drying, and was 29.7%
in the night thermal drying mode. This validated enhancement
encourages the use of sub dryer as thermal recovery to optimize the
utilization of fuel, and to increase the system capacity. In summary,
different works which adopted hybrid drying systems are charac-
terized in Table 1.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the counter flow desiccant wheel.

3. Performance of solar assisted desiccant dryers

Numerous researchers have been done to achieve the efficient
drying with less energy and less time with high product quality.
Accordingly, significant energy saving can be achieved by
employing new techniques such as low energy dehumidification
systems. The desiccant material used in the dehumidification sys-
tems adsorbs moisture from process air and gets saturated with
time and become less efficient, therefore it needs to be regenerated
by a heat source. Solar radiation is used to regeneration the
desiccant material in drying application. Solar assisted desiccant
system (SADD) is used to dry the product with low temperature
drying and continues drying even through in the absence of solar
radiation. In other words, desiccant systems can provide low and
uniform levels of humidity in the process air so and enhance the
drying uniformity and performance. The dehumidification process
of desiccant wheel dehumidifier is shown in Fig. 1.
3.1. Effect of desiccant material
The desiccant material has the ability to adsorb high levels of
humidity from process air which is the demand of the uniform and
efficient solar drying. Also, desiccants desorb humidity easily at low
temperature through regeneration process. The desiccant materials
may be classified into two main groups which are solid and liquid
desiccant materials. Each kind of these materials has its own
dehumidification technique. Basically, liquid desiccant systems are
more complicated than the solid desiccant dehumidifiers [10].
However, it is convenient here to review how the desiccant mate-
rials affect the performance of drying.
3.1.1. Solid desiccant material
The solid desiccant dehumidification has been reviewed for air
conditioning systems [11]. Several solid desiccant materials have
been considered such as silica gel, activated alumina, synthetic
zeolite, composite materials, biodesiccants and activated carbons.
The micro-porous structure of solid desiccant is an important
property in considering the ability of adsorbing moisture from
humid air. However, solid desiccant materials considered for solar
drying application may have slightly different consideration
regarding healthy dried products such as food drying. Also, the hot
dried air is required for drying process unlike in air conditioning
application where the dried air is preferred to be cold. The effect of
composite desiccant material based on silica gel on solar drying
performance was investigated [12,13]. Silica gel composite has
shown better drying performance than pure silica gel desiccant. Ten
most commonly of the desiccant materials have been tested for
optimum dehumidification process [14]. Of the different desiccants,
in Molecular Sieve the silica gels B, 3A and RD always achieve
higher levels of performance than other desiccants for air dehu-
midification under most operating conditions. The performance of
continuous solar drying was investigated by considering two
desiccant materials as a heat storage system in addition to their
dehumidification function [15]. Molecular sieve 13  (Na86 [(AlO2)
86. (SiO2)106] 264H2O) as an adsorbent type and CaCl2 as an

Table 1
Hybrid system in drying application.

System type Shorten the drying time Type of product Efficiency upon mode References

Solar (comparing with Thermal Hybrid Solar Thermal Hybrid

open sun)

Exhaust heat re-injection 76% 11.2% comparing with Red chili, ginger, waste 30.7% 23% YASSEN,T.A., 2016 [5]
technique solar mode palm oil and fish
Sub-drying through heat 27.5% Red chili 25.84% 29.7% YASSEN,T.A., 2016 [5]
recovery
Indirect natural Pineapple 15% 13% 11% Madhlopa, A. and G. Ngwalo,
convection 2007 [6]
Natural convection 62% 30 h 26 h Coconuts Lokeswaran, S. and M.
Eswaramoorthy, 2013 [7]
Hybrid forced convection 66% 21 h Red chili at 60
C Leon, M.A. and S. Kumar, 2008
[8]
Hybrid solar dryers with Red chili 9.9% 10.3% Yassen, T.A. and H.H. Al-Kayiem,
heat recovery 2016 [9]
1106 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115

absorbent type. Comparing with the open sun drying, the adsor-
bent desiccant type has reduced the drying time by 25% while the
absorbent desiccant type performed around 45% in drying time
reduction.
3.1.2. Liquid desiccant material
Liquid desiccant systems have attracted many researchers due
to its low regeneration temperature in addition to its ability of
absorbing organic and inorganic contaminants from the air [16].
The liquid desiccant dehumidifiers are used in many air condi-
tioning systems [17] and in industrial applications such as drying of
compressed air [18] and gelcast green bodies [19]. However, the
effect of using liquid desiccant materials on product quality were
considered for crop solar drying [20]. The results showed that these
kinds of dehumidification systems can reduce the cracked seeds by
7% under low temperature drying of 45
C and 55
C. various liquid
desiccant materials have been analyzed thermodynamically [21].
The three most commonly used liquid desiccant solutions, namely
LiCl, LiBr and CaCl2 were evaluated against each other. The analysis
has revealed that LiCl liquid desiccant system performs better and
more stable than those using other candidates. Noteworthy out-
comes of related works are listed in Table 2.
3.2. Modeling effect of desiccant system on performance
various applications such as fixed bed, belt, axial flow wheel, radial
flow wheel, cross flow bed and multi-pass wheel [10]. In the
context of product quality and drying performance, rotary desic-
cant when integrated in hot air drying system has been studied
[24,25]. The rotary desiccant wheel is divided into adsorption and
regeneration sections that work simultaneously by means of
continuous rotation between the process humid air and a heated
regeneration air stream. Silica gel is placed equally in four quarter
of the wheel as shown in Fig. 2 [24]. In comparisons with the pure
hot-air system, the combined hot-air desiccant system has ach-
ieved shorter drying time considerably by about 25%. In compari-
son with the solar dryer without using a desiccant wheel, using of
rotary desiccant wheel in the solar drying units increased the
temperature of drying air from 65
C to 82
C while the humidity
ratio decreased from 15 to 8.8 gwater/kgdry air [25].
A dehumidification system that is configured as desiccant beds
has been used in solar drying in order to enhance the dryer per-
formance for continuous drying process [26]. The desiccant system
of silica gel beds (SGB) integrated into solar drying system is
illustrated in Fig. 3. Two modes of experiments have been carried
out, namely with-dehumidification and without-dehumidification
modes. The results exhibited reduction in drying time by around
20% when the dehumidification system is integrated.

The performance prediction of desiccant system may be affected 4. Regeneration techniques of desiccant system
by the mathematical model applied. In this context, the effect of
model modification on performance prediction of novel silica gel The principles of dehumidification by using of desiccant mate-
haloid compound desiccant wheel has been investigated [22]. The rials are based on the ability of these materials to adsorb the
developed model includes the effect of gas side resistance and the moisture from process air. However, it is required to remove the
solid side resistance. It is found that this model agree better to the
experiments than the former model which does not consider the
solid side resistance. Based on artificial neural network technique,
the modeling of desiccant wheel performance has been established
[23]. Using a neural network toolbox of MATLAB with feed forward
back propagation method, a neural network model has been
developed based on the experimental observations on desiccant
wheel. Several feed forward back propagation algorithms have
been tested for the modelling of desiccant wheel. A training algo-
rithm with least mean square error (MSE) represents the optimum
model. The results of analyzing all training algorithms revealed that
the training algorithm trainlm (LevenbergeMarquardt back prop-
agation) is found most suitable.

3.3. Effect of dehumidifier design

Different design configurations have been investigated in the

previous works in order to enhance the performance of drying. Due
to the simplicity in design and reduction in fabrication cost, the
solid desiccant systems are used most commonly in solar food
drying. Basically there are several solid desiccant systems used in Fig. 2. Rotating desiccant wheel [24].

Table 2
Liquid desiccant material in different application.

Material Users/recommender References

lithium chloride (LiCl) In air dehumidification, the simple expression derived can be used to estimate P. Gandhidasan, 2004 [16]
the water condensation rate
LiCl solution significant energy saving potential compared with the conventional compressed Yonggao Yin, 2015 [18]
air cooling drying system
Ethanol In drying application, the green body changes from compressive stress to tensile Xiao-feng WANG, 2015 [19]
stress
Liquid desiccant solution In drying application, less energy consumption and better quality at (45
C - Alizadeh, 2012 [20]
55
C)
Liquid desiccant LiCl, Dehumidifier, liquid desiccant systems using LiCl seem to have better I.P. Koronaki, 2013 [21]
LiBr and CaCl2 were evaluated against each other. performance than those using LiBr and CaCl2, at Moisture ratio (15.9e2.8)%
 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115 1107

Fig. 3. Desiccant bed solar dryer [26].

adsorbed moisture from the desiccant material by regeneration
process in order to maintain high dehumidification performance.
Without regeneration process, the desiccant performance reduces
gradually with process time until reaching equilibrium condition.
Consequently, the absence of regeneration process causes non-
uniform humidity levels in process air and hence affects the uni-
formity and performance of drying. Table 3 summarizes different
techniques employed to regenerate the desiccant wheel used in
different applications. For solar drying, the drying uniformity,
performance and product quality depend on process air tempera-
ture which is related to the desiccant dehumidification rate and
subsequently on regeneration characteristics such as regeneration
temperature and flow rate. Various techniques have been utilized
for regeneration of different desiccant systems [27].
4.1. Integrated desiccantesolar collector regeneration system
The desiccant material has been regenerated by locating it in-
side a solar air collector within tilted bed [28,29] as shown in Fig. 4.
Metal mesh can be used to lay the desiccant bed on it in order to
allow the generation air pass through the desiccant bed. In the
Fig. 4. Integrated desiccant-solar collector regeneration system [29].
regeneration process, the moisture removing rate augments with
irradiation and decreases with air flow rate.
4.2. Waste heat energy desiccant regeneration system
Saving energy issue motivates the researchers to exploit the
waste heat energy from different sources in regeneration of
desiccant systems. The regeneration of desiccant dehumidifier was
carried out by utilizing microturbine-generator (MTG) exhaust gas
[30]. In order to enhance drying efficiency, the condenser waste
heat from refrigerator cycle has been employed to drive moisture
off of the desiccant wheel dehumidification system [31,32]. Using
this hybrid heat pump-desiccant drying system, 30%e60% of en-
ergy can be saved. Based on a natural gas-fired reciprocating in-
ternal combustion engine, the waste heat from a microcogenerator
has been utilized for regeneration of desiccant wheel dehumidifier
[33,34].

Table 3
Regeneration techniques of desiccant system.

Regeneration Application Process parameters Desiccant material type Insolation References

techniques (W\m2)
Reg. Reg. Process air Reg. flow
temperature time flow rate
(
C) (hr) (kg\s)

A/C, drying e e e e Silica gel e Lu,S.M., et al., 1995 [28]

Solar energy Air-conditioning 100 6 3,4,7 Silica gel 300, 500, Techajunta, S., S.
700 Chirarattananon, 1999 [29]
Natural gas-fired mode Dehumidification 124 e e e Single wheel e Zaltash, A., et al., 2006 [30]
Solar energy Air-conditioning 72 2 0.007 0.15 Silica gel bed 300 Pramuang, S. and R.H.B. Exell,
2007 [35]
Solar energy Air conditioning 100 e e e Calcium chloride e Elsarrag, E, 2003 [41]
Solution
3 3
Solar energy Air conditioning 59e144 e 580.8 (m /h) 237.9 (m /h) Single wheel e Ali Mandegari, 2009 [85]
Air humidifier e e e e e Calcium chloride e Alosaimy, A.S, 2011 [42]
solution
Micro cogenerator HVAC systems 65 e e 2 - 60 (l/ Silica gel wheel e Angrisani, G., et al., 2011 [33]
min)
Condenser coil Drying e e e e Desiccant wheel e Wang, W.C., R.K. Calay, 2011
[31]
Ultrasonic technology Drying e e e e Silica gel wheel e Yao, Y., W. Zhang, and B. He,
2011 [40]
Solar energy HVAC systems e e e e Wheel e Beccali, M., 2012 [36]
Solar energy Cooling e e e e Wheel e Finocchiaro, P, 2012 [32]
Solar energy Food production e e e e Calcium chloride e Abu-Hamdeh, 2016 [37]
solution
1108 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115
4.3. Solar air heater desiccant regeneration system
The hot air required for desiccant regeneration can be produced
by the solar air heater. Solar air heater with a compound parabolic
concentrator collector (CPC) has been investigated for regeneration
of desiccant dehumidification system [35]. The solar air heater has
produced a regeneration temperature of 40
C and 50
C at flow
rate of 0.03 kg/s and 0.003 kg/s respectively. The measurements
revealed that using CPC solar air heater can produce hot air at 10
C
above the ambient air temperature at cloudy weather and 50
C
above the ambient temperature on sunny day.
4.4. Solar water heater desiccant regeneration system
Solar energy can be employed to heat up the air by using solar
water collectors. Both flat water solar collector [36] and parabolic
trough solar collector (PTC) [37] can be used for regeneration of
desiccant dehumidification system. A heat exchanger based on
nanofluids can improve the heat transfer from the hot water and
desiccant material for regeneration purpose. Solar energy was used
to heat water with a solar collector and heat was transferred to the
air through two heat exchangers to dry crushed oil palm fronds. The
hot air is used to regenerate the desiccant and to increase tem-
perature of drying air after dehumidification [38]. Low solar radi-
ation was used to regenerate the dehumidifier to dry the kenaf core
fiber [39].
4.5. Ultrasonic desiccant regeneration system
An ultrasonic technology as a non-heating method can be
employed for removing of moisture and improve drying process.
The power ultrasonic induces an oscillating and acoustic micro-
streaming that will decrease the boundary layer thickness of
moisture adjacent to the solidegas interface and reduce the resis-
tance of external mass transfer [40]. The ultrasonic method can be
combined with another heating method for better performance of
the desiccant system.
4.6. Liquid desiccant regeneration systems
Different design concepts have been addressed for liquid
desiccant regeneration systems in previous works. A tilted solar
regeneration system has been developed to regenerate calcium
chloride desiccant solution [41]. The weak desiccant solution flows
as a thin film over a blackened corrugated surface where its tem-
perature increases while it moves down to the bottom. Thus, the
concentration of desiccant solution increases due to evaporation of
water. The results showed that the optimum liquid to air flow rate
ratio is about 2.54. Another liquid desiccation regeneration system
employs solar water collector combined with air heater [42]. The
heated water from the storage tank of the solar heating system is
circulated in a finned tube. Hot air from the air heater is blown
through a packing of a honeycomb type for the purpose of regen-
eration of calcium chloride (CaCl2) solution. The test results
exhibited that steady state operation condition can be achieved
when a storage tank is used with the solar collector.
4.7. Phase change materials regeneration system
Some dehumidification systems have been regenerated using
phase change materials (PCM) as a heat storage system. Encapsu-
lated phase change materials (EPCM) with silica gel desiccant
particles have been placed in one dehumidification bed to enhance
the performance of dehumidification system [43]. Mathematical
modelling based on heat and mass transfer and numerical solution
method have been proposed to express the dehumidification pro-
cess through desiccant/EPCM bed. Careful choices of EPCM volume
fraction and thermo physical characteristics have been found to
increase the overall effectiveness of the desiccant dehumidifier
with negligible loss in the dehumidification efficiency. Utilizing
PCM as a heat storage was extended to liquid desiccant rather than
solid desiccant. This technique has been employed in Liquid
desiccant air conditioning (LDAC) systems to heat the weak solu-
tion using the stored energy before entering the thermal regener-
ator during off-sun hours [44]. The concentration of the spent
solution at the thermal regenerator outlet varied between 26.91%
and 27.06% (wt/wt). A fabric-PCM-Desiccant model is developed to
predict the temperature and moisture content of the microclimate
air layer in the presence of a PCM-Desiccant packet [45]. The
developed model is validated through experiments conducted on a
wet clothed heated cylinder for the two cases of using (i) a PCM
only packet and (ii) a PCM-Desiccant packet. Microclimate air
temperatures and humidity content as well as PCM and desiccant
temperatures were measured experimentally and were compared
with predicted values by the fabric-PCM-Desiccant model. Good
agreement was attained with a maximum relative error of 7% in
measured temperatures. A decrease is observed in the humidity
content of the microclimate air in the presence of the solid desic-
cant from 21.23 g/kg dry air to 19.74 g/kg dry air and an increase in
the melted fraction of the PCM at the end of the experiment from
0.24 to 0.5.
5. The effect of geometrical parameters on uniform drying
One of the challenges in solar dryer design problems is the
drying uniformity which indicates to the efficient system and leads
to high quality product. The design parameters of the solar drying
system affect the drying uniformity significantly. For example air
velocity distribution should be considered in drying chamber
design in order to ensure uniform final moisture content of the
dried products on the trays [39]. However, other parameters such
as the arrangement of drying system components may influence
the performance of drying. In this context, multi drying beds or
even multi drying chambers require specific consideration in order
to secure uniform drying.
5.1. Drying chamber design
Drying chamber is the place where the product to be dried is
located. Non open sun solar dryers have been classified according to
the working principles. Three groups of solar dryers have been
presented, namely direct dryer, indirect dryer and the integrated
dryer [46]. In direct solar dryers, the product is exposed to the solar
radiation directly in the drying chamber. On the other hand, the
drying is carried out by air heated through solar heater in advance
before entering the drying chamber. In contrast, integrated dryer
utilizes solar heated air and direct solar radiation to dry the prod-
uct. Indirect solar drying may maintain higher product quality after
drying [47]. However, the design of drying chamber still under
research in order to achieve uniform drying and increase drying
performance.
5.1.1. Conventional chimney type drying chamber
Chimney type drying chamber is commonly used for passive
drying (natural convection mode) as shown in Fig. 5 [48]. The up-
draft hot air is employed to dry the product located on one or more
trays that are arranged vertically at the bottom of the chimney
[49e51]. Chimney type drying chamber fed from multi pass solar
air heater has been designed for deep bed drying application [52].
The challenge was to perform high quality drying with deep drying
 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115 1109

presented to produce dried whole and sliced turmeric rhizomes,

The device utilizes solar power in a conductive manner as well as
convective way for drying [54]. The product is placed on black
painted treys distributed on two sides with a chimney at the middle
as depicted in Fig. 6. The drying is occurred due to the direct solar
radiation falling on the product through transparent sheet cover in
addition to the absorbed energy by the treys. However, some active
drying systems (forced convection mode) have same chimney
design [47,55]. More focusing on structural design is required to
ensure uniform air flow rate through the crop bed.

5.1.2. Unconventional drying chamber design

The unconventional drying chamber design denotes to the
drying chamber that does not follow chimney configuration in its
design. A recirculation type integrated collector drying chamber
(ICDC) solar dryer has been proposed for grain drying application
[56]. The drying chamber is structured as a transparent cylinder
contained a hopper inside as depicted in Fig. 7.
The hot air supplied from a stove is blown in order to carry the
grain which circulate inside the drying chamber until get dried. This
method is not suitable for all products due to the action of circu-
lation that need low weight small particles and may destroy the
original configuration of the product. A semi cylindrical shape solar
dryer has been proposed for general orientations [57]. As shown in
Fig. 8, the drying chamber is a part of the semi cylindrical tunnel.
The greenhouse type drying chamber has been proposed for effi-
cient drying in both passive mode [58,59] and active mode
[38,60,61] as depicted in Figs. 9 and 10.
In the context of drying uniformity, experiments have been
conducted to prove the effect of unconventional drying chamber

Fig. 5. Solar dryer of chimney type drying chamber [48].

bed. It has been found that the air humidity and the drying rate
increase with the increase in the product bed depth. The efficiency
of a solar dryer can be improved further when the drying chamber
is designed with an angled roof (the so called tent-dryer effect)
[53]. Solar conduction dryer based on solar chimney concept is

Fig. 6. Conduction drying system [54]. Fig. 7. Circulating type integrated collector drying chamber [56].
1110 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115

Fig. 11. Sensors position and flow diagram of drying air [38].

Table 4
Final moisture content of the fronds sample for each experiment [38].
Fig. 8. Semi cylindrical solar dryer [57].
Tray position Moisture content, % (wet basis)

Experiment 1 (3 Experiment 2 (2 Experiment 3 (1

column) column) column)

2a 28 27 28
4 29 29 29
6a 27 26 27
9 52 42 e
11 53 44 e
13 53 43 e
16a 57 e e
18 57 e e
20a 57 e e
Open sun 55 49 41
drying
a
Measured manually.

Fig. 9. Passive greenhouse drying chamber [58].

Fig. 10. Active greenhouse type drying chamber [38].
design on solar drying uniformity. The trays have been arranged
vertically in three columns as shown in Fig. 11 [38]. The numbers
represents the position of the trays. The process air passes through
each column laterally. The data collected from three experiments
represent the moisture content of the product in three trays per
column as presented in Table 4. The experimental results shows
prove of drying uniformity per each column where the moisture
content was around 28, 53 and 57% in the first, second and third
column respectively.
In the context of maintaining homogenous drying conditions, a
rotary column cylindrical drying chamber has been proposed for
hygienic agricultural products [62] as shown in Fig. 12. The rotating
column contains holes to allow air to escape from the chamber.
More hygienic product and uniform drying characteristics are ob-
tained due to the rotation of the drying chamber. For continuous
drying mode, an integrated desiccant solar drying chamber has
been introduced as an indirect active solar dryer on sun hours and
as closed desiccant drying chamber on sun off hours [63] as illus-
trated in Fig. 13.
In the context of maintaining uniform temperature distribution
inside the drying chamber, the walls of drying chamber need to be
insulated insulation material such as glass fibers [64]. Drying
chamber for drying osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes with
horizontal air flow over vertical arranged sieve-type trays has in-
tegrated with solar source heat exchanger [65]. This design has the
advantage of allowing uniform distribution of air temperature in
the drying cabinet as exhibited in Fig. 14. The drying chamber is
protected efficiently from insects, dust and rain, and good quality
product can be achieved. A compound vertical and horizontal (mix
mode) air flow has been modified for indirect solar dryer [66] as
shown in Fig. 15. Multi tray rack is used to arrange the trays
vertically with different air flow direction either in vertical or in
horizontal direction. However, an extensive comparison study be-
tween the effects of both flow directions on drying performance
 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115
Fig. 12. Rotary column drying chamber [62].
still uncovered in the literature.
5.2. The consideration of multi chamber dryers
The target of drying uniformity can be achieved only if the
process air could flow over whole product bed area with same
characteristics as long as the solar drying is occurred by the action
of air flow (indirect solar drying mode). Logically, the process air
properties may be influenced by the spent air of other part of
product load. This interaction between process air and spent air
could be controlled by developing proper design of drying chamber.
Using multi chamber dryer may be considered to solve this problem
or to enhance the uniformity of drying as a final result. Multi drying
chamber of staircase type has been presented as a simple design of
direct solar dryer [67] as shown in Fig. 16.
In this passive dryer type, the drying air flows through product
trays in series. In other words, the spent air from the first tray is the
process air for the next tray and so on. Consequently, the process air
characteristics change downstream which subsequently lead to
non-uniform drying. Also, a multi shelf drying chamber has been
proposed to allow drying process to be performed locally at farm or
even at home [68,69]. The shelves are arranged one above the other
on a tilted rack as illustrated in Fig. 17.
1111
Fig. 13. Continuous duty drying chamber. 1, Blower; 2, Flat plate collector; 3, Drying
chamber; 4, Insulation; 5, Absorber plate; 6, Bottom plate; 7, Transparent cover; 8,
Desiccant bed; 9, Plywood; 10, Air inlet; 11, Duct for air exit; 12, Drying trays; 13, Two-
way fan; 14, Valve; 15, Plywood [63].
Fig. 14. Drying chamber for osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes [65].
The multi shelf dryer have same working principles of the
former staircase dryer. Therefore, the uniformity of drying still not
perfectly improved. Multi trey drying chamber with vertical
arrangement of treys is investigated [70,71]. The hot air provided by
solar air heater passes through four perforated treys in series from
the bottom to the top of drying chamber as exhibited in Fig. 18. As
explained previously, this kind of multi drying chamber lacks a
modification in its design to solve the problem of drying uniformity
with large load and high quality product.
5.3. Modeling and optimization of geometrical parameters
The target parameters in solar drying optimization problem can
be summarized by minimizing energy, cost, drying time and
improving the quality of the products [72]. The optimization by
numerical simulation has been carried out to optimize the opera-
tional and physical parameters of adsorption desiccant unit inte-
grated in solar dryer for apricot drying [73]. The adsorption model
has been defined by five non-linear partial differential equations
that were employed to cover the adsorption kinetics and the
simultaneous energy and mass transfer balances in order to
investigate five basic parameters. These five variables are drying air
temperature, desiccant temperature, interstitial velocity of gas flux
through the adsorbent bed, the air absolute humidity, and molar
ratio of sorbate/sorbent. An optimization of dryer geometry has
been carried out for mixed-mode and indirect-mode natural con-
vection solar dryers for maize [74]. The optimization procedures
1112 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115
Fig. 15. Indirect solar dryer with mix mode air flow [66].
Fig. 16. Staircase drying chamber [67].
Fig. 17. Multi shelf drying chamber [68].
have been performed by running the simulation at different sets of
physical parameters namely, collector length L, collector and drying
Fig. 18. Multi trey drying chamber [70].
chamber width W and grain depth B in order to give dryer cost. The
optimization was based on minimizing dryer cost and getting the
geometrical parameters that achieve this target. The drying cost
(Cd ) is given as the ratio of annual cost (Ca ) to quantity of grain dried
per annum (Qg ) as:


Cd ¼ Ca Qg (1)
The annual cost is defined as
!
X
N
ðu  1Þ
Ca ¼ CT þ mi ui   (2)
i¼1
u uN  1
The quantity of grain dried per annum is calculated from the
throughput of the dryer per day and the number of days in a year
the dryer is used and is given by
Qg ¼ Qd Da (3)
In the context of improving drying quality and reducing drying
time, a parametric study has been accomplished in order to opti-
mize the design of solar drying of timber [75].
6. Drying products
The most important parameter from the drying process is the
product quality. In this context study the performance of drying to
investigate the uniformity of drying process system is the aim of
this review article. Various types of products are gained from
different solar drying systems which integrated with another heat
source as listed in Table 5.
First of all, the biomass has been used as a backup heater in the
drying system to configure a solar-biomass dryer that has been
suggested by many researchers to enhance the overall drying effi-
ciency. Some researchers have used direct type natural convection
solar dryer with simple biomass burner to dry fruit and vegetables
in non-electrified areas of developing countries by fabricate
experimental work. A compression done by using three mode,
drying by using open sun, drying using the solar drying system and
finally drying using hybrid system solar-biomass [6,76,77]. In these
papers further improve the performance of both the solar and
biomass components of the dryer are suggested. It found that the
biomass supply useful heat to the drying by 27%. The results show
that the hybrid system has low drying time [77]. The rectangular
duct and flue gas chimney have been added to the burner to remove
the gas and be as thermal storage with a conventional solar
 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115 1113

Table 5
The performance of solar drying of different products.

Load System type Product Initial moisture Initial Final moisture Drying Drying Drying IP Ref.
(kg) content (%) temp. content (%) chamber temp. time (hr) Efficiency up to 10%
(
C) (
C) (%) w.b (W)

140 Natural convection Pineapple 66.9 (db)% e 11 (db)% 41e56 13 e Madhlopa, A. and G. Ngwalo,
2007 [6]
e Natural convection Coconut 53.4 e 9.2 e 26 e e Lokeswaran, S. and M.
Eswaramoorthy, 2013 [7]
e Hybrid forced Red chili 76.7 e 8.4 60 ± 3 32.5 11.06 e Leon, M.A. and S. Kumar, 2008
convection [8]
e An indirect-mode Thymus and 95% and 85% 29 11 ± 0.5 39e54 34 and 5 e e El-Sebaii, A.A., 2013 [80]
forced convection mint w.d
e Forced convection Red seaweed 90% w.d 30 10% w.d 48.6 15 e 247 [82],2014, Fudholi, A
indirect type
40 Forced convection Red chili 80% 30 10% 44 33 13% 47.29 Fudholi, A., 2014 [83]
indirect type
100 Indirect forced Palm oil 60% 33 10% 49 22 19% 172 Fudholi, 2015 [81]
convection fronds
e Dehumidifying bed Crushed oil 69% e 29% e 30 h and 19% e Misha, S., 2016 [38]
of a desiccant palm fronds 40 mint
cooling system.
e In direct force Seeded e e e e e e e Çakmak, G., 2011 [79]
convection grapes
20e22 Hybrid system Pineapple e e 53% e 39 9% e Bena, B.,
Natural convection 2002 [77]
18 Mixed mode hybrid Ginger 319.7 (db)% e 11.8 (db)% e 33 15.59% e Prasad, 2005 [76]
natural convection
e Mixed mode hybrid Turmeric 358.96 (db)% e 8.8 (db)% e 36 14.74% e Prasad, 2005 [76]
natural convection
e Mixed mode hybrid Guduehi 257.95 (db)% e 9.69 (db)% e 48 7.5% e Prasad, 2005 [76]
natural convection
100 Hybrid in direct Rapper 34.26% e 0.34% e 48 e e Sonthikun, 2016 [78]
force convection

chimney [6]. To reduce consumption of biomass by ingesting solar into energy such as biofuel oil, the product properties illustrate in
energy application has been present, by Computational fluid dy- Table 5. The first and second law of thermodynamics used for en-
namics technique is used to simulate the temperature and air flow ergy and exergy analysis of the solar drying process to study the
distributions in the drying chamber [78]. The presented articles dry performance for red chili and the (SEC) specific energy consump-
different type of product and different parameter present in these tion equal to 5.26 kwh/kg [83], The drying process show in Fig. 19.
papers such as, drying efficacy and the drying time all the details The wasted heat from air conditioning system used to dry tim-
summarize in Table 1. In the previous articles the evaluation of ber, the values 5.7 kg humidity was taken from the product at the
product quality has been done to test the ability of these systems to end of 50 h and12.5 kg from the poplar timber at the end of 70 h
achieve the uniformity of the drying during the day and the night [84]. In this paper the results shows that the Specific humidity is a
and in the same tray [6,76e78]. very significant factor in the psychometric analysis.
By using PCM as heat storage and adding swirl element to the A semi-continuous mode was performed to reduce the drying
drying chamber to optimum distribution of air inside the drying time by applying new technology in solar drying system by using
room to achieve the uniform and continues drying even during the desiccant material. In this study test the uniformity of the product
absence of solar radiation experimental have been carried out by have been done in different trays and different time. But the result
Ref. [79]. The drying experiments have been carried out by both show that it less quantity of product in the drying chamber. The
under natural conditions and by the dryer with swirl flow and drying rate at full capacity was 8.37 kg/h, which is twice that of
without swirl flow at three different air velocities. The obtained open sun drying (4.23 kg/h). The hot air from the heat exchanger is
moisture ratio values have been applied to six different moisture used to regenerate the desiccant material [38].
ratio models in the literature. The model is evaluated according to
the value of (R & x2) which related to the thin layer model.
Comparing with other model having the highest correlation coef-
ficient (R) and the lowest Chi-square (2) value has been deter-
mined as the most relevant one for each seeded grape drying status.
A blower was used to force the heated air to the drying chamber
for an indirect-mode forced convection solar dryer was designed
and fabricated [80,81]. The products dried in this work with the
properties are present in Table 5. It is found that, Midilli and Kucuk
model is convenient to describe the thin layer solar drying of mint
[80].
However, the Page and modified Page models were found to be
the best among others for describing the drying curves of thymus
[80,82]. Red seaweed dried and the system presented analytically
by energy and exergy analysis [82], Seaweed is can be converted
Fig. 19. Drying process.
1114 S. Husham Abdulmalek et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 1103e1115
7. Conclusion
This paper is focusing on the enhancement of drying uniformity
and performance of solar dryers by considering the effect of ther-
mal backup, dehumidification and design parameters of drying
chamber. The related works of hybrid solar thermal dryers, each
aspect of dehumidification using desiccant systems and drying
chamber design have been reviewed extensively. The conclusion
drawn from the review is:
 Biomass thermal backup can be integrated with solar dryer to
achieve uniform drying in terms of process air temperature.
 Desiccant system needs to be considered extensively in terms of
providing uniform humidity levels in solar dryers.
 The most important parameters involved in uniformity of
dehumidification process are desiccant material type, dehu-
midifier design and regeneration method.
 The physical design of the solar dryer plays important rule in the
drying uniformity and hence the product quality. The design
parameters of drying chamber, the multi dryer issue, and opti-
mization of modeled design parameters are strongly related to
the enhancement of drying performance.
 The quality of the drying product is a main objective in
designing an efficient solar drying system. Some lacking still
need deep consideration such as the direction of process air
inside the drying chamber and its effect on drying uniformity.
Also, multiple drying chamber solar assisted desiccant dryer
may have another scenario regarding the enhancement of dry-
ing performance and product quality.
Acknowledgment
We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by Universiti
Teknologi PETRONAS and Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia
(MOHE) of Malaysia for this work under Fundamental Research
Grants (FRGS) with grant numbers 0153-AB-K88 and [FRGS/1/2015/
TK10/UTP/03/2].
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