An experimental study was performed to investigate the drying characteristics of lemongrass in solar assisted chemical heat pump dryer under the meteorological Malaysian conditions. A solar assisted chemical heat pump dryer has been designed, and built. The system located on the roof top of a three-storey building at the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). It consists of four main components: solar collector (evacuated tubes type), storage tank, solid-gas chemical heat pump and dryer chamber. Three representative days for sunny, cloudy and semi-cloudy were presented, and two air drying speeds (1m/s, and 3 m/s) have been investigated. The weight was recorded on personal computer at 5 minutes intervals, and about 65 g of fresh lemongrass was dried from average initial moisture content of 9.1 db to an average final moisture content of 0.36 db.
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