A Review on Possible Combination of Solar Dryer Materials for Crops in the Philippines

Abstract

Direct sun drying, also known as open sun drying, is the most cost-effective and environmentally beneficial technique of agricultural product preservation, but it degrades crop quality. Solar dryers play an essential part in producing high-quality and hygienic products; however, it is cost and maintenance expensive. Also, it has an inadequate drying performance when off sunshine period, night-time, and especially during different seasons. As a result, this study looks at a variety of low-cost options, high-efficiency materials that have been used in previous studies to give further research, an idea on what would be the ideal combination of cost-effective materials that can be used by small-scale farmers in far-flung areas with off-grid. In addition, this study explores several optimization methodologies, procedures, and processes for efficiently storing energy even when solar radiation is low to further optimize and prolong the solar dryers’ performance.