Experimental study of passive Solar dryer integrated with encapsulated PCM thermal storage system

A new mixed passive indirect solar dryer (NMPISD) was experimentally studied. NMPISD consisted of a flat plate solar air heater connected with a drying chamber, integrated with a thermal storage system. The thermal storage consisted of encapsulated balls filled with paraffin wax. The dried crop was fresh bananas. The results showed that the effectiveness of the solar system as the wax reached final melting at 11:00 AM. The hot air drying chamber temperature maintained (42.6 ?) due to the wax for 6 hours after sunset. The useful energy rate and efficiency of the solar heater during the charging period reached (291.7 W) and (60.1%), respectively. The average evening discharge and useful energy were (42.4%) and (67.8) W, respectively. The highest discharge efficiency was (66%) at the beginning of the evening discharge period. The moisture content and sample weight decreased to (21.8%) and (102) gram, respectively, after the test hours.