COFFEE DRYER WITH DEHYDRATED AIR: A TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC VIABILITY ANALYSIS

The defects that drying in concrete yards impose on coffee beans and the search for gourmet coffee production have prompted the emergence of new drying technologies. This work verified the technical and economic feasibility of drying coffee with dehumidified air with a refrigerating capacity of 422,908.7 J s -1 , compatible with static capacity dryers equal to 75 m 3 . Considering the sale price of coffee, the cost of electric energy acquisition, the monthly interest rate and maintenance time, expenses that are equivalent to the depreciation of the concrete yard, a central compound rotational design was considered with 28 tests for the feasibility analysis, including the internal rate of return, net present value and the return on investment. The results showed that in the electric drying units, the dried coffee presents fewer broken and defective beans and has higher retention in a N o . 17 sieve. With a higher beverage quality and a price 12.11% higher, drying with dehydrated air showed a PBD of 2.27 years and a return of US$ 2.49 million. The optimisation results were 98.98% desirable. It was concluded that it is economically feasible to dry coffee with dehydrated air and without using a concrete yard.