Drying is an energy-intensive process utilized in numerous agricultural and food processes

Thus, there are great incentives for reducing energy use in drying to improve economics of the drying process, benefiting farmers and reducing food cost to consumers. However, challenging thermodynamics barriers limit the opportunities to reduce energy consumption in this domain. The use of RE-circulatory direct-expansion (DX) heat pump (HP) drying systems have been demonstrated to be a state-of-the-art energy efficient drying technology. However, DX-HP technology is limited in terms of the maximum air temperature IT can deliver and its significant drop in efficiency when operating at elevated temperatures, making IT unsuitable for drying crops. Here we propose a new generation absorption technology enabled by innovations in ionic liquid (IL) desiccants and compact heat and mass exchangers. The system is primarily operated by a new generation low-profile and -cost solar thermal panel with collection efficiency 3-4 times higher than photovoltaic (PV) cells, enabling installation within a mobile crop drying system, conforming to a highly integrated system without land use. The technology addresses the cost, size, efficiency, and operational limitations of current dryers, providing access to low-cost sustainable drying in small farm communities. Under this project, a proof-of-concept heat-driven IL-based membrane-based absorption heat pump system will be developed and tested at typical agriculture/crop drying temperatures to establish the viability and performance of this technology. This low-cost technology facilitates nifa's mission concerning improvement in sustainability and profitability of small and mid-size farms and ranches.