Gracia-Hernández, Alejandro

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Mejoramiento del proceso para el secado de café pergamino bajo las condiciones climatológicas de Puerto Rico.
(2013) Gracia-Hernández, Alejandro; Monroig-Saltar, Francisco M.; College of Agricultural Sciences; Huertas Miranda, Javier A.; Pérez Muñoz, Fernando J.; Negrón de Bravo, Edna; Department of Food Science and Technology; Soto Vélez, Jay O.
A laboratory dryer was constructed and validated to simulate the drying process at various environmental conditions. The effect of the drying air temperature and specific humidity in the time and energy consumption of the process was studied using washed parchment coffee of the Coffea arabica variety. Three levels of temperature (45, 50 and 55qC) and three levels of specific humidity (0.014, 0.018 and 0.022 grams water / grams dry air) were used by triplicate. The results show that the drying temperature has a significant effect on energy consumption and drying time. The specific humidity only had significant effect on the energy consumption and drying time at the extreme temperature levels. The constant and falling drying rates were determined for all treatments and their energy consumption rates. A sensory evaluation was performed for parchment coffee, green coffee and roasted coffee.