1. Introduction
Based on the latest data from The International Coffee Organization (ICO) and coffee review, Indonesia ranks fourth largest in the world in terms of coffee production, after Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia. Indonesia is also the fifth largest coffee exporting country in the world [
1],[
2]. Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia's coffee exports were recorded at US
$ 1.14 billion with a volume of 433,780 tons in 2022. The export value increased by 35.71% compared to the previous year which amounted to US
$842.52 million with a volume of 380,173 tons [
3]. The drying process is one of the required stages in the processing of crops that serves to reduce the water content to a level that is suitable for storage for a longer period of time but still maintains the quality of the final product [
4].
Solar energy, the most main source of today's energy, is unsurpassed due to its large amount of energy, capable capacity, environmentally friendly, easily available, and clean power source [
5]. Compared to non-renewable sources, solar energy is considered the most beneficial renewable energy resource for drying industrial and agricultural products. The utilization of solar power in food drying technology can reduce costs due to fossil fuels [
6]. Solar energy in the food production process has a great impact in the development of food technology, although there is currently a movement towards renewable energy storage due to the impact of fossil fuel use on energy, climate change, and the demand to reduce post-harvest damage is growing. Drying farm products can maintain shelf life, save packaging costs, reduce packaging costs, increase transportability, and create a better appearance while maintaining flavor and nutritional content. By removing water from foodstuffs, bacteria, yeast, and mold cannot grow, leading to food spoilage [
7]. This is accomplished by eliminating water from a substance and the result is a solid. However, it is a complicated procedure that combines mass and heat transfer simultaneously [
8].
Drying in direct sunlight is a traditional method often used by farmers to preserve their agricultural produce. This technique is a method that has been used for a long time [
9]. Open sun solar dryer (OSSD) is one way to dry foodstuffs. OSSD has many drawbacks, such as degradation of the quality of professional air ducts, rain, wind and production loss due to birds and dust [
10]. Solar dryers can be considered to replace OSSD types if designed appropriately. SD offers advantages over OSSD if well designed [
11]. Therefore, indirect dryers are widely researched to improve the quality of agricultural products and are a sustainable solution [
12], [
13].
The Indirect drying method consists of a drying chamber and a solar collector. The solar collector absorbs heat from the sun and delivers the heat to the drying chamber naturally. Lingayat and Chandramohan conducted a numerical investigation of an indirect solar dryer for drying banana chips [
14]. Designed a solar dryer integrated with a solar collector for drying green tea [
15]. Analyzed a solar dryer integrated with a double-sided solar collector for drying bananas. From the results of the study, the efficiency obtained was 21.9% [
16]. Experimented a solar dryer integrated with a solar collector with the help of heat storage material to overcome the absence of sunlight at night. From their results, the highest drying efficiency was 41.66% [
17]. Examined indirect solar stills integrated with solar collectors numerically, from the results of their research it was found that the optimum output position was in the northern part [
18]. Analyzed indirect dryers using flat plate collectors and finned collectors [
19]. Based on the literature studies conducted above, until now drying using plate collectors with forced convection systems is a fairly efficient and most widely used drying system for drying various commodity products.
Drying is a very complicated process of mass transfer phenomena, so that each commodity must have special drying conditions in order to obtain optimal quality drying results. For this reason, until now there is still a great need for research to determine the optimum forced convection drying conditions to obtain good drying quality results. Some research related to solar drying using forced convection system plate collectors, [
20] in 2021 conducted research on performance Forced Convection solar Cabinet Dryers Under Different air Mass flow Rates for Dryer cluster number. In this study, several variations of air flow rates were carried out to dry cluster fig fruit. Based on this research, the optimum air flow rate for drying cluster fig fruit in order to obtain good drying quality was 3.72 kg/min. [
21] in 2021 conducted research on analyzes drying system based on a solar collector for drying carob pulp. In this study, several variations of flow velocity and temperature were carried out to dry carob pulp. Based on this research, it was obtained that the drying temperature condition of 80°C and a drying air velocity of 0.18m/s was the optimal condition for drying carb pulp. [
22] in 2021 conducted research on the effect of variations in the mass flow rate of drying air to dry pineapple using a mixed-mode solar dryer. In the study obtained, a drying air mass flow rate of 0.0015 kg/s can produce better exergy and drying efficiency. [
23] in 2022 conducted research on variations in the mass flow rate of drying air on the V-groove double pass collector to dry pink lady apples. In the study, an air mass flow rate of 0.041 kg/s can remove the most optimal moister, however at an air mass flow rate of 0.051 kg/s is the maximum exergy efficiency.
Therefore, there is still no research that varies the air flow velocity on the solar coffee dryer. For this reason, this research has a novelty with the aim of analyzing the effect of variations in airflow velocity and temperature solar collector on coffee quality in a solar coffee dryer with speed variations of 1 m/s, 1.5 m/s, 2 m/s. 2.5 m/s, 3 m/s. This research is expected to find the optimal speed in the solar coffee dryer process to get optimal coffee quality.
2. Materials and Methods
In this research, 5 solar coffee dryers are used which have the same size and components. The heat source used in drying coffee beans is from solar radiation heat obtained from solar collectors as heat collectors. The arrangement of the solar coffee dryer components can be seen in
Figure 1.
Solar coffee dryer has components consisting of two pieces of glass with a thickness of 5 mm, a 3 mm flat type absorbent plate painted black which functions as a solar heat collector. To isolate the heat that has been trapped in the solar collector, 50 mm thick glass wool is used around the solar collector body. The cover of the lower solar collector is made of 3 mm thick ACP (Aluminum Composite Panel). On the sides of the two wide parts, air inlets and air outlets (dryer box direction) are made of flexible pipe material with a diameter of 120 mm and a length of 100 mm attached to the side of the dryer box wall. Dryer box with size 800 mm × 890 mm × 600 mm
The exterior of the drying box is made of 3 mm flat zinc plate and coated with 10 mm styrofoam and on the inside of the drying box is coated with aluminum foil to maintain the cleanliness of the dried coffee bean samples free from surrounding dirt. Another component in the drying box is a chimney that functions as an air outflow in the upper position with a diameter of 150 mm. Hot air from the solar collector is flowed using a 12 V and 0.14 A DC fan with a speed variation of 1 m/s, 1.5 m/s, 2 m/s. 2.5 m/s, and 3 m/s. Testing was carried out for 25 hours until the final moisture content of the coffee was 19% with an initial moisture content of 95%. In this experiment, the temperature data (measured by thermocouple type Agilent 34972A) and mass loss as well as solar radiation and ambient air velocity were measured by HOBO. Hobo Microstation data logger, the humidity value of the sample in the dryer box was measured using Data Logger GM1365 LE: 2511497 and recorded every 10 minutes with a device connected to the computer. Each solar coffee dryer is symbolized by DB1. It is a solar coffee dryer with an intake air speed of 1 m/s, DB2 is a solar coffee dryer with an intake air speed of 1.5 m/s, DB3 is a solar coffee dryer with an intake air speed of 2 m/s, DB4 is a solar coffee dryer with an intake air speed of 2.5 m/s, and DB5 is a solar coffee dryer with an intake air speed of 3 m/s. Each box of dried coffee beans contains a weight of 1500 grams and is hung on the available shelves made of aluminum with a size of 400 mm × 400 mm × 200 mm with holes at the bottom (wire mesh) which is directly connected to the load cell as a recorder of changes in coffee mass reduction. The design of the dryer can be seen in
Figure 2
Coffee bean samples were obtained from Marsangap Village, Toba Regency. Samples were washed after the outer skin was removed and fermented for 6 hours after being picked from the garden and then removed the outer skin and sorted to select good beans for further drying. Coffee beans that have been dried after peeling the outer skin are then dried without using solar heat or additional heat and the water content is 87%. Coffee bean samples are put into the drying rack with a thickness of 0.5-1.0 cm evenly. The rack filled with coffee beans is then put into the DB1, DB2, DB3, DB4 and DB5 drying boxes each with the same weight. Measurements were taken from 08.00 am to 18.00 pm. Drying was carried out for 25 hours until it reached 19% moisture content. The fan is turned on with different speeds for each solar coffee dryer. DB1 = 1 m/s, DB2 = 1.5 m/s, DB3 = 2 m/s. DB4 = 2.5 m/s and DB5 = 3 m/s. The energy source that drives the fan comes from electrical energy where the fan is set with dimmer controlled. It can be seen in
Figure 3. experimental set-up used in this study
3. Thermal analysis
In this section there are several formula used to analyze the heat transfer and drying that occurs in the coffee solar drying equipment. Moisture content (M) of substance is expressed as percentage by weight of wet basis. The moisture content wet basis was according to:
where M
w = is the mass of the wet material and M
d = is the mass of dry materials Amount of moisture to be removed can be calculated as:
where M
w is amount of water to be removed of water, kg, M
cl is initial moisture content M
p is initial mass of product to be evaporate to the time interval required is second.
System drying efficiency for forced convection solar dryer in day time is defined as the ratio of energy supplied to evaporate the the moisture of the product to the energy suppied too the drier.
Where L = Latent in KJ/kg, I = is the solar intensity m/m
2, A
s = is the surface area of the solar collector m
2. T= total time of drying in second, E= Energy supplied to the Blower in joule. Effectiveness factor: it can be defined as ratio of drying rate in the cabinet solar dryer to the drying rate in the open sun drying.
To analyze the thermal efficiency of solar collectors, the following equation is used:
With Incoming heat energy (Q
in):
Where, I = solar radiation intensity (W/m
2), A = collector surface area, τ = glass transmissivity = 0.88, and α = plate absorptivity = 0.97 (The absorptivity value of the black painted plate is assumed to be 0.97). And to calculate the use heat energy (Q
u) used:
In calculation of the solar collector efficiency factor (F’) is assumed to be 90%. The absorptivity value of the black painted plate. The total heat loss of the collector (Q
loss) can be used equation:
Radiation heat loss (Q
rad):
Top-side heat loss (Q
top):
Overall heat transfer coefficient:
heat loss at the bottom (Q
bottom):
heat loss at the wall (Q
side):
where N = amount of glass, F = (1 + 0.089 h
w − 0.1166 h
w εp) (1 + 0.07866N), C = 520 (1 − 0.000051β2), E = 0.430(1 − 100/Tpm), β = Collector's angle (deg), εg = Acrylic emissivity (0.88), εp = plate emissivity (0,97), Ta = Ambient temprature (K), Tp = Plate temperature (K), hw = convection heat transfer coefficient (W/m
2°C).
Author Contributions
“Conceptualization, P.S. (Parulian Siagian) and F.H.N. (Farel Hasiholan Napitupulu); methodology, P.S. (Parulian Siagian) and H.A. (Himsar Ambarita); software, H.A. (Himsar Ambarita) and H.S.S. (Horas Sotardodo Siagian); validation, Y.P.S. (Yogi Probo Sibagariang); formal analysis, H.V.S. (Hendrik Voice Sihombing) and Y.P.S. (Yogi Probo Sibagariang); investigation, H.V.S. (Hendrik Voice Sihombing) .and Y.P.S. (Yogi Probo Sibagariang); resources, P.S. (Parulian Siagian); data curation, H.S.S. (Horas Sotardodo Siagian); writing—original draft preparation, P.S. (Parulian Siagian); writing—review and editing, P.S. (Parulian Siagian); visualization, H.S.S. (Horas Sotardodo Siagian); supervision, F.H.N. (Farel Hasiholan Napitupulu) and H.A. (Himsar Ambarita); project administration, H.S.S. (Horas Sotardodo Siagian); funding acquisition, H.V.S. (Hendrik Voice Sihombing) and Y.P.S. (Yogi Probo Sibagariang) (Parulian Siagian); All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.”