This study was aimed to examine the effect of fluid type on the thermal performance Parabolic Trough Solar Collector (PTSC) was investigated. The simulation process was performed using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD). The experiments were conducted at the air flow rate of 0.08 m/s. Four fluid types including water, glycerin, engine oil (10W40) and Nano-fluid (Al2O3, 9%) were considered for the performance analysis. At the end of the day the final fluid temperature which stored in the storage tank was about was about 64.9, 79.2, 83.5 and 90.8, respectively. Moreover, thermal obtained energy for water, glycerin, engine oil and Nano-fluid was 34.19 MJ, 37.79 MJ, 43.18 MJ and 50.76 MJ, respectively. CFD simulation of the storage system showed that there is a good agreement between the simulated and experimental data at different air flow rates. Using PCM has no adverse effect on the quality of the dried product.
