Accepted Manuscript

A Comparative analysis on the Uniformity Enhancement Methods of Solar

Thermal Drying

Shaymaa Husham Abdulmalek, Morteza Khalaji Assadi, Hussain H. Al-Kayiem, Ali

Ahmed Gitan

PII: S0360-5442(18)30071-9

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.01.060

Reference: EGY 12172

To appear in: Energy

Received Date: 02 November 2017

Revised Date: 13 December 2017

Accepted Date: 11 January 2018

Please cite this article as: Shaymaa Husham Abdulmalek, Morteza Khalaji Assadi, Hussain H. Al-
Kayiem, Ali Ahmed Gitan, A Comparative analysis on the Uniformity Enhancement Methods of
Solar Thermal Drying, Energy (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.01.060

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Author group and affiliation

Shaymaa Husham Abdulmalek1,a, Morteza Khalaji Assadi1,b, Hussain H. Al-Kayiem1.c, Ali Ahmed
Gitan2,d,e,
1 Universiti
Teknologi PETRONAS, Faculty of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department, Solar
Thermal Advanced Research Center, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia.
2 Tikrit University, Faculty of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department, Tikrit, Iraq.
aShaymaa_g03363@utp.edu.my, b morteza.assadi@utp.edu.my, chussain_kayiem@utp.edu.my,
daliagitan@tu.edy.iq, ealiahmedeng1@gmail.com
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A Comparative analysis on the Uniformity Enhancement Methods of Solar

Thermal Drying

Abstract:
The uniformity of solar drying process and the quality of the product are inter-related parameters.
Drying uniformity is influenced by the significant process air properties which are temperature,
humidity and velocity. Accordingly, solar drying uniformity may be improved by integration with
dehumidification system and/or optimizing the dryer design. These concepts were reviewed
extensively in this paper by 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 is influenced by desiccant material, dehumidifier
design and regeneration technique used. While, the issue of solar dryer design is related to drying
chamber geometrical parameters, considering multiple drying chambers, and modeling and
optimization of dryer design. Coming out with this comprehensive review may motivate to enhance
the quality of product and drying performance in terms of cost and time.
1. Introduction
2. Solar Thermal Hybrid Drying Systems
3. Performance of Solar Assisted Desiccant Dryers
3.1. Effect of desiccant material
3.1.1. Solid desiccant material
3.1.2. Liquid desiccant material
3.2. Modeling effect of desiccant system on performance
3.3. Effect of dehumidifier design
4. Regeneration techniques of desiccant system
4.1. Integrated desiccant–solar collector regeneration system
4.2. Waste heat energy desiccant regeneration system
4.3. Solar air heater desiccant regeneration system
4.4. Solar water heater desiccant regeneration system
4.5. Ultrasonic desiccant regeneration system
4.6. Liquid desiccant regeneration systems
4.7. Phase change materials regeneration system
5. The Impact of Geometrical Parameters on Uniform Drying
5.1. Solar dryer design
5.1.1. Conventional chimney type drying chamber
5.1.2. Unconventional drying chamber design
5.2. The consideration of multiple dryers
5.3. Modeling and optimization of geometrical parameters

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6. Drying Product
7. Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References

1. INTRODUCTION
The ability of save the food or any agricultural/fishery products, especially in countries with various
seasons, is essential for long time storage and preservation. In developing countries, lack of suitable
technology, such lack of marketing channels, improper transportation, high post-harvest losses, etc.,
causing a food loss from 10 to 40% [1]. To save the food for long time without deterioration, it
should be dried and the moisture content should be reduced to a certain preselected level. Such
drying process requires large energy consumption in terms of electrical energy or fusil fuel burning
to supply the necessary thermal energy. Drying process is an energetic intensive activity and plays
a significant role in many industrial applications such as food, textile and paper and in many other
processing industries. One of the main heat sources that employed to reduce the conventional
energy consumption for drying process is the solar energy. Basically, this method has been utilized
traditionally for food drying purpose since long time. In many countries, open sun drying (OSD) is
used in a small farms to produce 80% of dried food [2]. There are several disadvantage of open sun
drying like dirt, wind, animals, insects and the occasional rain [3]. Solar dryer systems (SDS) have
been used instead of open sun dryer this system is supply renewable energy and environmental
friendly. Various studies reported that national energy consumption for industrial drying operations
ranging from 10-15% for USA, Canada, France, and UK and around 20-25% for Denmark and
Germany [4].
Significant energy saving can be achieved as efficient drying systems are designed by
employing new techniques such as low energy dehumidification systems. Many previous works
have come out with various approaches in order to reduce the energy consumption and enhance the
performance of drying process. However, over 85 % of industrial dryers are of the convective type
with hot air or direct combustion gases as the drying medium [4].
Within the framework of green technology performance development, solar drying
uniformity is an important aspect that requires extensive investigation. The objective of the current
paper is to develop one reference platform for the researchers who are intending to develop the
uniformity and product quality of solar drying based on the temperature, the humidity and the
velocity of the process air. Also, this work aims to presents the relevant techniques to these air
properties which have a significant effect on the uniformity and performance of solar drying. These
techniques include solar thermal hybrid drying, solar assisted desiccant dryers (SADD) and drying
chamber design. Also, the paper presents comparative that allow the researchers to have insight
information on the various enhancing techniques attempted previously.

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2. SOLAR THERMAL HYBRID DRYING SYSTEMS

The hybrid solar thermal dryer consists of solar dryer connected with thermal back-up unit (TBU).
The thermal back-up unit consists of burner and heat exchanger. The solar part is working with
availability of solar energy within the day. The biomass heater is working when the absence of solar
energy to maintain the continuity of drying process with uniform level of process air temperature.
Maintaining uniform process air temperature is one objective of enhancing the solar drying
uniformity and performance.
A hybrid drying system was investigated experimentally with two new modifications of
exhaust heat re-injection technique and thermal recovery sub-dryer [5], the experimental results
demonstrated that the dryer in hybrid mode drying shortened drying time by 11.2 % compared with
solar mode drying. The dryer in solar drying mode shortened the drying time by 76 % compared
with open sun drying. In thermal mode, the exhaust heat reinjection unit enhanced the overall drying
efficiency of red chilli by 6 %. In the hybrid and thermal modes, the recovery sub-dryer enhanced
the overall drying efficiency of drying ginger by 23.7 % and 30.7 %, respectively. Furthermore, the
recovery sub-dryer enhanced the overall drying efficiency of the system with respect to drying red
chilli by 25.84 % and 29.7 % through the hybrid and thermal modes, respectively.
Design, development and evaluation were performed for an indirect kind of natural
convection solar dryer of integrated collector-storage solar and biomass backup heaters [6], The
testing was carried out in three modes of operation (biomass, solar and solar–biomass), The values
on average of the final-day moisture pickup efficiency were 15%, 13% and 11% in the solar, solar–
biomass, and biomass modes of operation, respectively. A natural convection solar greenhouse
dryer combined with a biomass thermal back-up heater was investigated experimentally [7], The
material used for the flue gas ducts is 2 mm thick galvanized iron sheet metal. These ducts allow
for the passage of the hot flue gas from the heater into the air being circulated for drying the product
in the dryer. The gas then passes by way of the chimney to the outside atmosphere. It was found
that, for drying coconuts it required 88 hours in open sun drying, 44 hours in solar mode, 30 hours
in thermal mode, and 26 hours in hybrid solar thermal mode.
A hybrid forced convection dryer system, which combines an unglazed transpired solar
collector, rock bed, and a biomass gasifier stove with heat exchanger to provide the heat to the
drying chamber was designed and study experimentally. The system was evaluated by drying chilli
using air at 60 °C and flow rate of 90 m3/h. The temperature of hot air supplied was stable at 60 ±3
°C for about 21 hours during the entire drying duration [8].
The common practice was concluded in the hybrid solar dryers which are backed up with
thermal source is to exhaust the flue gas to the ambient [9], This flue gases are still hot and carry
considerable amount of thermal energy as waste. Also, the thermal energy of flue gas from a
biomass thermal backup unit was utilized in terms of heat recovery criteria. A prototype of hybrid
solar-thermal drying system was coupled with recovery dryer to yield a combination of the main
dryer and the recovery dryer. The combination was investigated experimentally to evaluate the

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enhanced performance compared to the system without recovery. The investigations 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 characterized in Table 1.

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 systems 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 Figure 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
materials 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

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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
dehumidification 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 absorbent type. Comparing with the open sun drying, the adsorbent
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 conditioning 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 45oC and 55oC. 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 outcomes of related works are listed in Table 2.

3.2. Modeling effect of desiccant system on performance

The performance prediction of desiccant system may be affected by the mathematical model
applied. In this context, the effect of model modification on performance prediction of novel silica
gel haloid compound desiccant wheel has been investigated [22]. The developed model includes
the effect of gas side resistance and 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

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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 algorithm with least mean square error (MSE) represents
the optimum model. The results of analyzing all training algorithms revealed that the training
algorithm trainlm (Levenberg–Marquardt back propagation) 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 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 desiccant 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 Figure
2 [24]. In comparisons with the pure hot-air system, the combined hot-air desiccant system has
achieved shorter drying time considerably by about 25%. In comparison 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 oC to 82 oC 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 performance for continuous drying process [26]. The desiccant system
of silica gel beds (SGB) integrated into solar drying system is illustrated in Figure 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.

4. REGENERATION TECHNIQUES OF DESICCANT SYSTEM

The principles of dehumidification by using of desiccant materials are based on the ability of these
materials to adsorb the moisture from process air. However, it is required to remove the 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
uniformity and performance of drying. Table 3 summarizes different techniques employed to
regenerate the desiccant wheel used in different applications. For solar drying, the drying

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uniformity, performance and product quality depend on process air temperature 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 desiccant–solar collector regeneration system

The desiccant material has been regenerated by locating it inside a solar air collector within tilted
bed [28, 29] as shown in Figure 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 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%-60% of energy can be saved. Based on a natural gas-fired reciprocating internal
combustion engine, the waste heat from a microcogenerator has been utilized for regeneration of
desiccant wheel dehumidifier [33, 34].

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 oC and 50 oC 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 oC above the
ambient air temperature at cloudy weather and 50 oC 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

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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
temperature of drying air after dehumidification [38]. Low solar radiation 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 microstreaming
that will decrease the boundary layer thickness of moisture adjacent to the solid–gas interface and
reduce the resistance 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 temperature 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 regeneration 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. Encapsulated 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 process 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 solution using the stored energy before

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entering the thermal regenerator during off-sun hours [44]. The concentration of the spent solution
at the thermal regenerator outlet varied between 26.91% to 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 desiccant 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
product. 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 Figure 5 [48]. The updraft hot air is employed to dry the product located on one or more

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trays that are arranged vertically at the bottom of the chimney [49-51]. 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 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 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 Figure 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 Figure 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
circulation 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 Figure 8, the drying chamber is a part of the semi cylindrical tunnel. The greenhouse type
drying chamber has been proposed for efficient drying in both passive mode [58, 59] and active
mode [38, 60, 61] as depicted in Figure 9 and Figure 10.
In the context of drying uniformity, experiments have been conducted to prove the effect
of unconventional drying chamber design on solar drying uniformity. The trays have been arranged
vertically in three columns as shown in Figure 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 Figure 12.
The rotating column contains holes to allow air to escape from the chamber. More hygienic product
and uniform drying characteristics are obtained due to the rotation of the drying chamber. For

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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 illustrated in Figure 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 integrated 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
Figure 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 Figure 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 between the effects of both flow directions on drying
performance still uncovered in the literatures.

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 Figure 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 Figure 17.
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
Figure 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.

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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 operational and physical parameters of
adsorption desiccant unit integrated 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 convection solar dryers for maize [74]. The optimization procedures have
been performed by running the simulation at different sets of physical parameters namely, collector
length L, collector and drying 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:

𝐶𝑎
𝐶𝑑 = 𝑄𝑔 (1)

The annual cost is defined as

( 𝑁
𝐶𝑎 = 𝐶𝑇 + ∑𝑖 = 1𝑚𝑖𝜔
𝑖
)𝜔(𝜔(𝜔 ‒ ‒1)1)
𝑁 (2)

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 = 𝑄𝑑𝐷𝑎 (3)

In the context of improving drying quality and reducing drying time, a parametric study has been
accomplished in order to optimize 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
.

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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
efficiency. 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 chimney[6]. To reduce consumption of biomass by ingesting solar energy
application has been present, by Computational fluid dynamics technique is used to simulate the
temperature and air flow distributions in the drying chamber [78]. The presented articles dry
different type of product and different parameter present in these papers such as, drying efficacy
and the drying time all the details summarize in Table 1. In the previous articles the evaluation of
product quality has been done to test the ability of these systems to achieve the uniformity of the
drying during the day and the night and in the same tray [6, 76-78].
By using PCM as heat storage and adding swirl element to the drying chamber to optimum
distribution of air inside the drying room to achieve the uniform and continues drying even during
the absence of solar radiation experimental have been carried out by [79]. The drying experiments
have been carried out by both under natural conditions and by the dryer with swirl flow and without
swirl flow at three different air velocities. The obtained moisture ratio values have been applied to
six different moisture 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 coefficient (R) and the lowest Chi-square (×2) value has been determined 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
. 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 into energy such as
biofuel oil, the product properties illustrate in
. The first and second law of thermodynamics used for energy and exergy analysis of the
solar drying process to study the performance for red chili and the (SEC) specific energy
consumption equal to 5.26 kwh/kg [83], The drying process show in Figure 19 .

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The wasted heat from air conditioning system used to dry timber, the values 5.7 kg humidity
was taken from the product at the end of 50h and12.5kg from the poplar timber at the end of 70h
[84]. In this paper the results shows that the Specific humidity is a very significant factor in the
psychometric analysis.
A semi-continuous mode was performed to reduce the drying time by applying new
technology in solar drying system by using desiccant material. In this study test the uniformity of
the product have been done in different trays and different time. But the result show that it less
quantity of product in the drying chamber. The drying rate at full capacity was 8.37 kg/h, which is
twice that of open sun drying (4.23 kg/h).The hot air from the heat exchanger is used to regenerate
the desiccant material [38].

7. Conclusion
This paper is focusing on the enhancement of drying uniformity and performance of solar dryers
by considering the effect of thermal 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, dehumidifier 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 optimization 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 drying
performance and product quality.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial and logistic support to conduct the present
work. The Solar Thermal Advanced Research center (STARc) in UTP is highly acknowledged for
providing the needed facilities and space to carry out the work.

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Table 1. Hybrid system in drying application

Shorten the drying time Efficiency upon mode

Solar Type of
System type References
(comparing Product
Thermal Hybrid Solar Thermal hybrid
with open
sun)
11.2% Red chili,
Exhaust heat
comaring ginger, YASSEN,T.A.,
re-injection 76 % 30.7% 23%
with solar waste palm 2016 [5]
technique
mode oil and fish
Sub-drying
YASSEN,T.A.,
through heat 27.5 % Red chili 25.84% 29.7%
2016 [5]
recovery
Indirect Madhlopa, A. and
natural Pineapple 15% 13% 11% G. Ngwalo, 2007
convection [6]
Lokeswaran, S.
Natural and M.
62 % 30 hours 26 hours Coconuts
convection Eswaramoorthy,
2013 [7]
Hybrid
Red chili at Leon, M.A. and S.
forced 66 % 21 hours
60˚C Kumar, 2008 [8]
convection
Hybrid solar Yassen, T.A. and
dryers with Red chili 9.9% 10.3% H.H. Al-Kayiem,
heat recovery 2016 [9]

Table 2. Liquid desiccant material in different application

Material Users/recommender References

lithium chloride (LiCl)
LiCl solution
Ethanol
Liquid desiccant solution
Liquid desiccant LiCl,
LiBr and CaCl2 were
evaluated against each
other.
In air dehumidification ,the simple expression
P. Gandhidasan,
derived can be used to estimate the water
2004 [16]
condensation rate
significant energy saving potential compared
Yonggao Yin,
with the conventional compressed air cooling
2015 [18]
drying system
Xiao-feng
In drying application, the green body changes
WANG, 2015
from compressive stress to tensile stress
[19]
In drying application, less energy consumption Alizadeh, 2012
and better quality at(45 °C - 55 °C) [20]
Dehumidifier, liquid desiccant systems using
LiCl seem to have better performance than I.P. Koronaki,
those using LiBr and CaCl2,at Moisture 2013 [21]
ratio(15.9-2.8)%

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Table 3. Regeneration Techniques of Desiccant System

Process parameters Desiccant

References
Regeneration material Insolation
Application
Techniques Reg. Reg. Process Reg. type (W\m2)
temperature time air flow flow
(°C) (hr) (kg\s) rate
Lu,S.M., et al,
A/C, drying - - - - Silica gel -
1995 [28]
Techajunta, S.,
300, 500, S.
Solar energy Air-conditioning 100 6 3,4,7 Silica gel
700 Chirarattananon,
1999 [29]
Natural gas- Single Zaltash, A., et al,
Dehumidification 124 - - - -
fired mode wheel 2006 [30]
Pramuang, S.
Silica gel
Solar energy Air-conditioning 72 2 0.007 0.15 300 and R.H.B.
bed
Exell, 2007 [35]
Calcium
Elsarrag, E,
Solar energy Air conditioning 100 - - - chloride -
2003[41]
Solution
580.8 237.9 Single Ali Mandegari,
Solar energy Air conditioning 59–144 - -
(m3/h) (m3/h) wheel 2009 [85]
Calcium
Alosaimy, A.S,
Air humidifier - - - - - chloride -
2011[42]
solution

Micro 2 - 60 Silica gel Angrisani, G., et

HVAC systems 65 - - -
cogenerator (l/min) wheel al, 2011 [33]
Wang, W.C.,
Desiccant
Condenser coil Drying - - - - - R.K. Calay,
wheel
2011 [31]
Yao, Y., W.
Ultrasonic Silica gel
Drying - - - - - Zhang, and B.
technology wheel
He, 2011 [40]
Beccali, M.,
Solar energy HVAC systems - - - - Wheel -
2012 [36]

Finocchiaro, P,
Solar energy Cooling - - - - Wheel -
2012 [32]
Calcium
Abu-Hamdeh ,
Solar energy Food production - - - - chloride -
2016 [37]
solution

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Table 4. Final moisture content of the fronds sample for each experiment [38].

Table 5. The performance of solar drying of different products

IP
Initial Final Drying Drying
Drying up to
Load moisture Initial temp. moisture chamber Efficiency Ref.
System Type Product Time 10%
(kg) content (°C) content temp. (%)
(hr) w.b
(%) (%) (°C)
(W)
Madhlopa, A. and
Natural
140 Pineapple 66.9(db)% - 11(db)% 41-56 13 - G. Ngwalo, 2007
convection
[6]
Lokeswaran, S.
Natural and M.
- Coconut 53.4 - 9.2 - 26 - -
convection Eswaramoorthy,
2013 [7]
Hybrid forced 76.7 Leon, M.A. and S.
- Red chili - 8.4 60± 3 32.5 11.06 -
convection Kumar, 2008 [8]
An indirect-
Thymus 95% and 85% El-Sebaii, A.A.,
- mode forced 29 11 ± 0.5 39-54 34 and 5 - -
and mint w.d 2013 [80]
convection
Forced
Red [82],2014,
- convection 90% w.d 30 10% w.d 48.6 15 - 247
seaweed Fudholi, A
indirect type
Forced
Fudholi, A., 2014
40 convection Red chili 80% 30 10% 44 33 13% 47.29
[83]
indirect type
Indirect forced Palm oil
100 60% 33 10% 49 22 19% 172 Fudholi, 2015 [81]
convection fronds
Dehumidifying
Crushed
bed of a 30 h and Misha, S., 2016
- oil palm 69% - 29% - 19% -
desiccant 40 mint [38]
fronds
cooling system.
In direct force Seeded Çakmak, G.,
- - - - - - - -
convection grapes 2011[79]

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Hybrid system
Bena, B., 2002
20-22 Natural Pineapple - - 53% - 39 9% -
[77]
convection
Mixed mode
18 hybrid natural Ginger 319.7(db)% - 11.8(db)% - 33 15.59% - Prasad, 2005 [76]
convection
Mixed mode
- hybrid natural Turmeric 358.96(db)% - 8.8(db)% - 36 14.74% - Prasad, 2005 [76]
convection
Mixed mode
- hybrid natural Guduehi 257.95(db)% - 9.69(db)% - 48 7.5% - Prasad, 2005 [76]
convection
Hybrid in
Sonthikun, 2016
100 direct force Rapper 34.26% - 0.34% - 48 - -
[78]
convection

Figure 1. Schematic Diagram of the Counter Flow Desiccant Wheel

Figure 2. Rotating desiccant wheel [24]

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Figure 3. Desiccant bed solar dryer [26]

Figure 4. Integrated desiccant-solar collector regeneration system [29]

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

Figure 6. Conduction drying system [54].

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Figure 7. Circulating type integrated collector drying chamber [56].

Figure 8. Semi cylindrical solar dryer [57].

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Figure 9. Passive greenhouse drying chamber [58].

Figure 10. Active greenhouse type drying chamber [38].

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

Figure 12. Rotary column drying chamber [62]

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Figure 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]

Figure 14. Drying chamber for osmotically dehydrated cherry tomatoes [65].

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Figure 15. Indirect solar dryer with mix mode air flow [66].

Figure 16. Staircase drying chamber [67].

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Figure 17. Multi shelf drying chamber [68].

Figure 18. Multi trey drying chamber [70].

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Figure 19. Drying process

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Highlight

 How flow uniformity influencing the product drying quality has been clearly brought
out.
 Previously reported works on the flow uniformity influencing in drying systems have
been summarized and compared.
 New design approach for better flow uniformity in hybrid drying system is proposed.