Experimental Research of Grape Drying Using Solar Dryer with Latent Heat Storage System

Solar dryer with latent heat storage system was designed in order to solve the problems of continuity of solar drying. The system was used to dry grape. The results of experiment show that the dryer met the requirement of continuous drying. At solar radiation of 600 Wm^-2-900 Wm^-2 and ambient temperature range of 3542 °C, the solar collector instantaneous thermal efficiency is 56%, the minimum heating efficiency of collector is 70%, the average heat storage efficiency is 66%. The average consuming time of drying 1 kg grape from 87.9% (wb) to 14% (wb) was 6 days.