Food Quality Magazine
ISSUE 01 | JANUARY 2016
Coopeldos Coffee Drying; Costa Rica
The coffee drying cooperative Coopeldos R.L.,
located in the province of Guanacaste in Costa
Rica, installed a solar drying system on the
entire roof of their building. Coopeldos, an
ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 registered company,
was the perfect candidate to demonstrate
state-of-the-art solar air heating crop drying
technology, since maintaining the ISO 14000
designation necessitates meeting certain energy conservation standards.
A 860 m2 (9,250 ft2) black solar air heating system was installed on the roof at the Coopeldos
facility. The warmed air that is collected from
the system is used for two purposes: It heats
the vertical pre-drying silo, which dries the coffee beans from 60% moisture content, to 35%.
It also heats the guardiolas, which are the
rotating drums that carry out the final drying
stage. Here, the beans are further dried to a
12% moisture content. Following this second
drying stage, the beans are packaged in bags.
Picture 2 - Coopeldos Coffee Drying; Costa Rica
Picture 3 - How Solar Air Heating Works: Solar air heating systems are integrated into the wall or roof of a building
and are typically all-metal. Solar radiation strike the surface of the system, and heated air is drawn through tiny
micro-perforations in the surface of the collector. This solar heated air is then ducted into a conventional drying system or into a building’s HVAC system, depending on the application.
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