Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a low-cost automated drying system and test its effectiveness in the drying process of cocoa beans through a case study. Thus, an electronic system was designed, composed of an Esp8266-12E microcontroller, which had Internet connection, humidity and temperature sensors, and a relay. A computer software system was used, which was responsible for storing the collected data. We developed an application called Data Silo for smartphones, and a case study was conducted. Data Silo was able to draw data from the sensors and trigger the centrifugal fan in real time. The captured and stored data exhibited consistency in the function of the sensors during the drying process. The case study attested to the reliability of the drying process and indicated that higher air speeds during drying at 40 °C shortened the drying time and altered the drying kinetics in the proposed system. Therefore, it was concluded that the automatic drying system was effective for drying cocoa beans. The Data Silo software, sketch, and user guide are available at GitHub https://github.com/Wagnereng/A-low-cost-automatization-for-cocoa-drying.

摘要

本研究的目的是开发一种低成本的自动化干燥系统，并通过案例研究测试其在可可豆干燥过程中的有效性。因此，设计了一个电子系统，由一个 Esp8266-12E 微控制器组成，该微控制器具有互联网连接、湿度和温度传感器以及一个继电器。使用了一个计算机软件系统，它负责存储收集到的数据。我们为智能手机开发了一个名为 Data Silo 的应用程序，并进行了案例研究。Data Silo 能够从传感器中提取数据并实时触发离心风机。捕获和存储的数据在干燥过程中表现出传感器功能的一致性。案例研究证明了干燥过程的可靠性，并表明在 40°C 干燥过程中更高的空气速度缩短了干燥时间并改变了所提议系统中的干燥动力学。因此，可以得出结论，自动干燥系统对于干燥可可豆是有效的。Data Silo 软件、草图和用户指南可在 GitHub https://github.com/Wagnereng/A-low-cost-automatization-for-cocoa-drying 上获得。