A high-performance solar collector suitable for a solar-assisted drying system was designed, fabricated, and tested. Solar-assisted drying systems consist of the solar collector array, auxiliary heater, drying chamber, and the air distribution systems. The solar collector was a double-pass solar collector and has upper and lower channels. The lower channel of the solar collector was filled up with porous media, which also acts as a storage medium. The outlet temperature and the performance of the system increased with the presence of the porous media. The collector width and length are 120 and

240 cm

, respectively. The upper channel depth is

3.5 cm

and the lower channel depth is

10.5 cm

. The solar collector array consists of six solar collectors, arranged as two banks of three collectors in series. The collectors were joined in series using internal manifolding. A temperature of

90 ° C

can be reached at a solar radiation level of

800 W ∕ m^{2}

, ambient temperature of

30 ° C

, and mass flow rate of

0.06 kg ∕ s

. The solar-assisted drying system was used for drying of oil palm fronds from moisture content of about 63% to moisture content of about 15%, for a drying time of about

7 h

. The overall system efficiency is about 25%.

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