The objective of this study is to measure the heat-up and the drying of a packed bed consisting of large wood particles as encountered in furnaces and to compare the predictions of a particle resolved approach to measurements. Within the experiments both single particle and packed bed measurements for the drying of wood were carried out. For both cases the samples as single particles and as a packed bed were exposed to a gas stream its temperature ranging from T = 443 to 743 K. The temperatures and the mass loss due to drying were recorded during the experiments and the heat transfer properties were correlated with earlier findings, Within the present contribution a packed bed is considered as an ensemble of a finite number of particles. The heat-up and drying process of each particle is described by one-dimensional and transient conservation equations for mass and energy. Applying this model to all particles of a packed bed forms the entire packed bed process as a sum of individual particle processes. The arrangement of particles within the bed defines a solid phase and a void space between the particles. The flow through the void space of a packed bed is modelled as a flow through a porous media taking into account interaction between the solid and the gaseous phase by heat and mass transfer, A comparison between measurements and predictions of drying models yielded satisfactory agreement only for the constant evaporation temperature model. Furthermore, the results show, that a particle resolved approach is better suited than a continuum mechanic approach to describe packed bed processes since this approach omits additional empirical correlations for a packed bed.