This paper investigates the performance of a solar cabinet drying system equipped with a heat pipe evacuated tube solar collector (ETSC) and thermal storage system with application of PCM. The thermal analysis of the solar collector, drying efficiency, CFD modeling of the system and quality evaluation of dried apple slices was considered. The performance of the dryer was simulated and validated by experimental data. The experiments was conducted at three air flow rates (0.025, 0.05 and 0.09 kg/s) for the drying system with and without using PCM for drying apple slices with the thickness of 5 mm. The result of thermal analysis showed that using PCM increases the input thermal energy about 1.72% and 5.12% for the air flow rates of 0.025 and 0.05 kg/s respectively, but excessive increase in air flow rate (up to 0.05 kg/s) decreases input thermal energy. The maximum overall drying efficiency was related to the system with PCM at the air flow rate of 0.025 kg/s and it was 39.9%. CFD simulation of the storage system and the dryer showed that there is a good agreement between the simulated and experimental. Using PCM has no adverse effect on the quality of the dried product.
