The Faculty of Chemical Engineering at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology has successfully developed a solar-powered coffee dryer.
Đỗ Hoàng Thắng, a member of the research team, explained that in addition to using solar energy to dry coffee, the equipment can also utilize agricultural by-products such as rice husks, coffee husks, sugarcane bagasse, straw, and wood chips to generate heat for drying when sunlight is weak or unavailable.
“The machine’s structure includes heat-collecting tubes similar to those in solar water heaters and a fluid storage tank to store solar energy for the drying process. Hot air passes through a heat exchange chamber, where it is combined with heat from burning agricultural by-products before entering the drying chamber. The air then exits along with the moisture,” Thắng explained about the machine’s operating principle.
According to Thắng, the dryer can handle about 200 kilograms of coffee per batch, reducing the coffee’s moisture content to 12%. Each unit costs over 100 million VND, and the team is currently seeking partners to transfer the technology.
Thắng also shared that the team is working on further improvements so that the machine can be adapted for all types of agricultural products with different processing capacities.