Value addition of agro products using renewable energy sources: Bottlenecks and solutions

the design of solar drier is still an art rather than Science. Science of drying of product should be understood well before developing the solar drying technology. Once the technology is well established, then solar drying engineering should be attempted so that the technology is cost effective and user-friendly. Unfortunately these aspects are not followed. With the result, many solar dryers are in the market with very poor performance and exorbitant cost. The present day solar dryers have driven away the users from “going for it”. A best performing solar dryer within the reach of common man's budget would definitely increase the confidence among public and would result in quality and products in quantity. As a case study we have taken solar dryer with biomass combustor to analyze dryer's performance which was exclusively used for coconut drying.