well the technology was developed for high quality food that one does not want to be decreased in quality because of the drying process like blue green algae, you are probably right about it not being economics friendly unless one was making thousands of pounds or something.(thus my inquery, something previously thought not possible could be found feasible if you come to understand the process well enough) i suppose if i were to try and make it on a minimal budget it would have to be a seasonal thing because i would make a BIG glass or clear acrylic table thing with a big mirror under it, set the whole thing out in the sun then it would either be make sides and fill it with just enough liquid to barely cover the surface, and let it dissolve then scrape and do again, it might get hotter than optimum this way (or not hot enough if you live in the pcnw!) or put a container under it with a small water pump at the upper side(the whole thing would be set at a slight angle with this design) so then you would have the same thing basically, i like the no pump idea cause i dont like the prospect of having my liquid going through extra containers and tubes and stuff
to explain the difference in quality from regular drying, i would compare it to curing cannabis when done very well it makes the herb better, but when it is sloppily cured it decreases in quality dramatically,(it also looks much nicer when cured well so you could say that the aesthetics are a potential indicator or quality) if you had some regular dehydrated water extract and some RWD extract i garuntee you would prefer the RWD stuff
(rwd=refractence window dried)
if one had shallow trays in dehydrator it would probably be the simplest kindof close solution (ive never seen shallow trays for dehydrator?)
