IoT-Based Monitoring and Control on Essential Oil Distillation Systems

The focus of this research is the application of a control system on steam distillation in the process of refining essential oils. The control system uses a microcontroller-based PID method to get the efficiency of gas fuel consumption. In the distillation system used, heating is carried out using two energy sources, namely electricity to heat the heating element, and LPG gas. To improve the performance of the control system, IoT is added for inputting data on the characteristics of essential oils to be distilled in the refining process. Monitoring of temperature and pressure on steam distillation is delivered periodically. Temperature monitoring is also carried out on the distillation cooling system. The efficiency of gas fuel consumption is obtained by applying the PID control method, namely the temperature is set in the range of 100°C -120°C, and the pressure is set in the range of 1 atm. The results obtained from the application of the PID control method with IoT-based monitoring are gas fuel efficiency. For the refining of nutmeg essential oil, the efficiency obtained is 17%, for 9 hours of the distillation process. And in the patchouli essential oil refining process, the efficiency of using LPG gas is 14% for 8 hours of the refining process. For citronella essential oil distillation, the efficiency of using LPG gas is 6%, for 5 hours of the distillation process. The yield of nutmeg essential oil was obtained at 5% for 9 hours of distillation. Patchouli essential oil yield was obtained 1.30% for 8 hours of distillation. And the yield of citronella essential oil was obtained at 1.1% for 5 hours of distillation time.