Review of research and development work on solar dryers for grape drying

This paper mainly deals with the development trends of solar dryers used for grapes drying. Several typical installations, including traditional methods, are presented. Technical and economical results indicate that solar drying of grapes is feasible. However, the farmer's acceptance of solar drying was still very limited. This may be due to the small capacity of the dryers and too long pay back period or to sociocultural factors. Further research and development work should be continued in order to over rule these factors. As research and development work has made significant progress, it seems that a review of all developed solar drying units is appropriate. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.