## 1 _Article_  
Experimental Evaluation and Theoretical Optimization of an Indirect Solar Dryer with Forced Ventilation under Tropical Climate by an Inverse Artificial Neural Network  
[PERSON] 1, [PERSON] 2\(\copyright\), [PERSON] 1, [PERSON] 3\(\copyright\), [PERSON] 1,*, [PERSON] 1\(\copyright\), [PERSON] 1 and [PERSON] 3,* \(\copyright\)  
_Col. Magisterial, Centro, Zona de la Cultura, Aveninda Universidad S/N, Universidad Juarea Autonoma de Tabasco, Villahermos C.P. 86040, Mexico; [PERSON]S] (M.M.-B. ); [PERSON](G.M.-P.); [PERSON]SS] (E.R.-M.); [PERSON]SS] (G.P.-H.)_  
Footnote 1: [[https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci](https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci)]([https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci](https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci))  
Footnote 2: [[https://www.mdpi.com/journals/pdf/10/](https://www.mdpi.com/journals/pdf/10/)]([https://www.mdpi.com/journals/pdf/10/](https://www.mdpi.com/journals/pdf/10/))  
and an economic spillover from foreign direct investment (FDI), which in 2019 exceeded 50 million USD [1]. Among the country's growing regions, the south-southeast zone (made up of the States of Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, and southern Veracruz) stands out due to its favorable climatic and hydrographic conditions, where 96% of the agricultural surface has rainwater irrigation. In this region, 50% of the entire country's water runs off, and the prevailing tropical rainy climate allows for harvests practically all year round [2]. From 2011 to 2017, the south-southeast region sustained the highest agricultural growth, with an annual rise in the area, in real terms, of 35.7%, making this region very important for the national agricultural use [3]. However, the fact of having harvests almost all year round brings about an economic problem related to the placement and sale of the products. This process is subjected to the postharvest lifetimes of the crop since it can generate an excess of production, saturating the market, or generate economic losses for farmers, due to wastage. Therefore, alternatives are required to preserve seasonal food, helping the development of the rural economy. One of the most attractive options for preserving fruits, vegetables, and herbs is drying and dehydration, which also provides other benefits such as lowering transport costs, increasing lifetime, and reducing crop waste [4]. Specifically, in regions with a tropical climate, solar dryers represent a feasible option for the development of such activity from an ecological approach, presenting lower capital and operating costs than conventional dryers [5]. In solar dryers, thermal energy from near-infrared wavelengths is harnessed to supply heat for the drying process and evaporate the required moisture content from the product. The effectiveness in the use of this technology depends on the radiation levels in the region. In the case of Mexico, the annual average daily irradiation on a horizontal surface is just over 4.4 kWh/m\({}^{2}\)-day. Specifically, in the south-southeast region, there is average daily irradiation of 5.5 kWh/m\({}^{2}\)-day due to its geographical location between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the area where the most significant amount of solar radiation is captured in the world [6]. Therefore, the use of solar thermal technology in Mexico contributes significantly to the energy requirements for postharvest processing, with the adequate technical feasibility to be used as a technological improvement in agricultural areas of tropical climate regions (like the south-southeast region of Mexico). Due to the agricultural biodiversity of this tropical region, in recent years, the practical potential of using solar thermal technology drying has been analyzed for various products with good commercial value for the south-southeast of Mexico [7]. [PERSON] et al. [8] developed an indirect tunnel type solar dryer for application in red chili.