Experimental Investigation of Panax notoginseng Drying Based on Solar Collector System

A solar thermal system consisting of solar collector, solar drying cabinet, and air blower for Panax notoginseng drying was constructed. Two identical air solar collectors with two air passes having V-groove absorption plates, and a single glass cover were used. The results of test showed that the solar air heating collectors could obtain a good thermal performance in winter season. While the air flow mass was 0.0597kg·s⁻¹, the maximum temperature of outlet air and maximum thermal efficiency were 62.2℃ and 76.0% respectively. The experimental comparison between two samples suggested that the solar drying was very effective, and the drying time was shorten to about 440 minutes from 990 minutes of the traditional sun drying. It was also observed that using the solar drier could obtain higher quality than traditional drying method.