ABSTRACT
Sun is a freely available heat source. The utilization of the free energy is considerably less due to lack of appropriate technology. Solar drying technology is a simple and ancient technology that utilizes solar radiation to generate heat for drying application. Solar drying technology produces high quality dried food products. The stumbling blocks of the ancient method of drying and the high price of conventional energy dryers can be overcome by the adoption of solar dryers. Solar dryers are classified according to the mode of operation and nature of flow. Depending on the mode of operation, solar dryers are classified into three types. They are direct, indirect, and mixed mode dryers. Depending on the air flow, they are classified as passive solar dryers and active solar dryers. This chapter presents case studies, which shows that the solar dryers installed are performing better and producing branded quality food products.
