We invite You to the dissertation thesis defence of Ing. et Ing. Eduardo Duque Dussán, MBA. Titled "Design and performance of a solar dryer for processing of coffee beans in Colombia" which will be held in room 313 on 16th November 2023 from 10:00 AM.
The research aims to provide a comprehensive set of tools to understand, simulate, predict and control the coffee drying process in different scenarios: Natural convection, forced convection and mixed. In Colombia, around 96% of the 540000 coffee-growing families are considered small-scale farmers; this percentage relies mainly on sun-drying techniques to process their coffee. Hence, a solution for the coffee growers seemed to be in place, integrating the product quality of sun-dried coffee and the technologies already existing in the farms (solar parabolic and tunnel dryers) with the rapid drying dynamics of mechanical dryers: a hybrid solar dryer. As a result of this research, a hybrid solar drying unit for coffee growers in Colombia was designed and investigated.