HCMC – The Chemical Technology Faculty of HCMC University of Technology has successfully invented a coffee drying machine using solar energy.
Solar energy used to dry coffee
By Dinh Nghia - The Saigon Times Daily
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| A coffee drying machine using solar power - Photo: Dinh Nghia |
HCMC – The Chemical Technology Faculty of HCMC University of Technology has successfully invented a coffee drying machine using solar energy.
Do Hoang Thang, head of the research team, said that in addition to using the solar energy to dry coffee, the machine could also use agricultural waste to generate heat to dry coffee when there was no or little rain.
The machine consists of heat-recovering pipes and a fluid tank to store solar energy. The heat of solar energy together with the heat from burning agricultural waste will enter the drying chamber to dry coffee, and then the air and vapor will come out, Thang explained.
The machine can dry some 200 kilograms of coffee each time, turning out coffee beans with a humidity of 12%. The team is finding partners to transfer technology as the machine’s price is over VND100 million, which is rather high.
The team is also trying to make some improvements in the machine to make it fit for other farm produce, Thang said.