| dc.description.abstract | The quality of cocoa beans is greatly influenced by the postharvest
handling, one of the crucial stages in postharvest handling is the drying process.
However, farmers in Indonesia still use the traditional drying methods, which
involve drying cocoa beans under the sunlight. Along with the advancement of
technology nowadays, the cocoa beans can be dried mechanically by utilized the
eletrical power to optimized the drying process of cocoa beans. This research
aimed to design and fabricate a cocoa bean dryer using electricity as a heat
source with capacity of 4 kg in 8 hours. This research used design and testing
method, then several parameters such as water content and drying effectivity,
temperature and RH distribution, drying rate and economical analysis were
measured. Results showed that the fabricated cocoa bean dryer have dimension of
100 x 50 x 80 cm with 4 trays which each have 1 kg capacity. This dryer could
reduce the water content of cocoa beans from 60% to 8% with drying temperature
of 60oC, which in accordance to the targetted time and capacity. However, the
temperature and RH distribution in each tray was fluctuated in the temperature
range of 54oC to 64oC, and in the RH range of 18% to 66%. Moreover, the drying
rate resulted in this process was in accordance with the drying process principal
and economically, this dryer is feasible indicated by the BEP value of 50.63
kg/year, NPV>0 of 89,535,346.74 IDR/year with interest rate of 6%, and the IRR
value of 18.44%. The utilization of this dryer could optimized the drying process
and maintain the cocoa beans quality. | en_US |
