Performance study of a wood solar drying device with latent heat storage system

Wood drying is one of the most important process links in wood products processing and it consumes roughly 40%similar to 70% of the total energy in the entire process. The performance of a mobile wood solar drying device with latent heat storage system was tested in this paper. The test results showed that the average power of collector system was 0.572kW and thermal efficiency was 56%, which was higher than that of the flat-plate collector. Energy storage efficiency came to 66% and energy storage density was 54.5 MJ/m(3). Compared with the steam drying, energy-saving effect of solar drying increased significantly. The energy saving rate was 71.2%. Additionally, the drying device could accurately control the temperature, so it could better accomplish various drying process.