| Summary: | In the Argentine Republic, In Misiones Province, the forestry industry constitutes a highly important activity; however, few sawmills have an appropriate wood drying system. These sawmills are the largest ones, while the smallest generally use an air-drying system. In order to provide a sustainable alternative for small sawmills, in this work, tests were carriedout on the operation of a solar wood dryer prototype. The aim was to obtain a functionality and performance determination of this prototype; and to this end, pine wood was used to perform the tests. The results were contrasted with a natural drying control group. Solar radiation and forced convection of hot air generated by the solar collectors were used for drying. The variables measured were humidity, ambient temperature and temperature inside the solar dryer. Compared to air-drying measurements, the main results were a humidity reduction of around 50 percent and a temperature increase of around 90 percent inside the prototype. In addition, it was found that wood dried with an air-drying system presented stains and fungal growth, while wood dried in the prototype did not show these drawbacks.
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