Appropriate technology for the conversion of solar radiation to thermal energy is vital for food dehydration. Commercial producers of dried foods need reliable drying technologies for continuity technologies for continuity of production. However, solar radiation is not available whenever it is needed to drying. This limitation discourages many of these producers from investing in solar technolo...

Colloidal suspensions containing nano-sized particles are used in numerous applications such as batteries, inks and paints, and also used as precursors to a wide variety of industrial materials. The ability to control the microstructure during drying is important for many potential applications. When it comes to solar cell technology, controlling the microstructure plays a critical role ranging...

Biomass, as a renewable source of energy, can be used in many industries to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. However, due to the significantly high and varied moisture content of biomass, its use has several drawbacks, such as low total efficiency and process instability. Drying biomass before combustion or gasification can eliminate these drawbacks. Besides these benefits, there ar...

Low-cost drying technologies suitable for rural farming areas are presented. Some of the important considerations with regard to their suitability include: 1. Low initial capital; 2. easy-to-operate with no complicated electronic/ mechanical protocol, and 3. effective in promoting better drying kinetics. The drying technologies that were selected include fluidized bed, spouted bed, infrared, so...

A solar drier assisted with evacuated tube collector is designed and developed to study and examine the drying Kinetics of muscat grapes in Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India.  During the drying period, temperature at various places, relative humidity, wind velocity and mass of the sample are measured on hourly basis.  The outlet temperature of the collector and temperature within the chamber varies f...

Saffron is the most expensive spice and is significantly valuable in non-oil export. Drying process of saffron is considered as a critical control point with major effects on quality and safety parameters. A suitable drying method covering standards and market requirements while it is costlty benefitial and saves energy is desirable. Solar drying could be introduced as an appropriate procedure ...

In this study, an air heated solar collector (AHSC) dryer was designed to determine the drying characteristics of the pear. Flat pear slices of 10 mm thickness were used in the experiments. The pears were dried both in the AHSC dryer and under the sun. Panel glass temperature, panel floor temperature, panel inlet temperature, panel outlet temperature, drying cabinet inlet temperature, drying ca...

The rate of agricultural and horticultural waste is high in Iran, and one of the best preventive methods is to convert fruits and crops to the products which have long shelf life and high quality. Traditionally apricots are dried in front of sun with excessive sulfuring which is proved to be harmful for human. In the current study apricots were dried by either solar tunnel dryer or conventional...

The sanitization effectiveness of sewage sludge solar drying was examined in the aspect of limiting the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms into the environment. The survival rates of indicator bacteria E. coli, faecal streptococci, and rods of Salmonella SenftenbergW775, as well as the eggs of the intestinal parasite Ascaris suum were assessed in dried sludge. The results indicate that t...