A review study on recent advances in solar drying: Mechanisms, challenges and perspectives

Drying is important in many processes for material preservation, operation optimisation, and easy handling. Various dryers have been developed to ensure controllable drying performance and enhance efficiency. Since traditional mechanical dryers depend heavily upon fossil fuels, ongoing studies have been conducted on solar dryers, focusing on offering alternative sustainable drying methods and utilising local materials in a more sus-tainable manner. This review features recent work and development on solar dryers from the material and technical perspectives, emphasising the component conceptions and ameliorations, material utilisations, and drying fluid thermodynamics. The overall drying performances, advantages, and current drawbacks of different solar dryer designs are critically discussed. Applications of various solar dryers in different sectors are also described.