This scientic publication in digital format is a continuation of the Printed Review: Legal Deposit pp 196802ZU42, ISSN 0378-7818.
    Rev. Fac. Agron. (LUZ). 2024, 41(2): e244112 April-June. ISSN 2477-9407.2-6 |
Resumen 
Reducir el tiempo de secado del café sin ocasionar efectos negativos 
en la calidad en taza ha sido motivo de diversas investigaciones. El 
objetivo  fue determinar  el efecto  de  tres variantes  de un  prototipo 
de  secador  solar  tipo  invernadero  en  la  calidad  física,  sensorial 
y  microbiológica  del  café.  El  prototipo  de  secador  solar  con  tres 
variantes, prototipo 1 (P1) secador solar tipo invernadero, prototipo 
2 (P2) secador solar con extractor de aire y prototipo 3 (P3) secador 
solar con  extractor de aire  y calefactores con  energía  solar, fueron 
comparados con el secado tradicional (T0) (piso de cemento). Se evaluó 
tiempo  de  secado, defectos  físicos  del  grano,  rendimiento,  calidad 
sensorial y microbiológica. Los mejores resultados se obtuvieron en 
el P3 con un tiempo de secado de 52 h (2 días ¼), con granos de café 
pergamino seco sin defectos primarios,  mayor  rendimiento en café 
oro exportable (83,24 %), perl sensorial de 84,25 puntos calicado 
como café especial grado Q Premium y mejor inocuidad que el café 
obtenido  por secado  tradicional; demostrando  que  el secador  solar 
tipo invernadero con extractor de aire y calefactores con energía solar 
es una alternativa sostenible para mejorar la eciencia del secado del 
café preservando su calidad sensorial, valor imprescindible para que 
los productores logren mejores precios.
Palabras clave:  cafés  especiales,  invernadero,  catación,  sensorial, 
inocuidad.
Resumo
A redução do tempo de secagem do café sem efeitos negativos 
na  qualidade  da  chávena  tem  sido  objeto  de  vários  estudos  de 
investigação. O objetivo era determinar o efeito de três variantes de 
um protótipo de secador solar de estufa na qualidade física, sensorial 
e  microbiológica  do  café.  O  protótipo  de  secador  solar  com  três 
variantes, o protótipo  1 (P1)  secador solar de estufa, o  protótipo 2 
(P2) secador solar com  extrator  de ar  e o  protótipo 3  (P3) secador 
solar com extrator de ar e aquecedores solares, foi comparado com a 
secagem tradicional (T0) (chão de betão). Foram avaliados o tempo 
de secagem, os defeitos físicos do grão, o rendimento, a qualidade 
sensorial e microbiológica. Os melhores resultados foram obtidos em 
P3 com tempo  de secagem  de 52  h (2 ¼ dias), com  grãos de  café 
pergaminho secos sem defeitos primários, maior rendimento em café 
ouro exportável (83,24 %), perl sensorial de 84,25 pontos qualicado 
como café especial (com grau Q Premium) e melhor segurança que 
o café obtido por secagem tradicional; demonstrando que o secador 
solar tipo estufa, com extrator de ar e aquecedores de energia solar, 
é uma alternativa sustentável para melhorar a eciência da secagem 
do café, preservando sua qualidade sensorial, valor essencial para os 
produtores alcançarem melhores preços.
Palavras-chave:  cafés  especiais,  estufa,  degustação,  sensorial, 
segurança.
Introduction
Currently  coee  producers  are  looking  for  new  processing 
techniques to improve their quality and achieve dierentiated sensory 
proles for international markets (Osorio et al., 2022), according to 
the same author, after harvesting the coee cherries, they are pulped, 
fermented and washed, immediately followed by drying, dehydrating 
the bean until it reaches a humidity that guarantees its conservation 
and stability. This process can be carried out mechanically, in raised 
beds  or  patios  in  order  to  reduce  humidity  to  10  to  12  %,  thus 
obtaining a more stable product in storage (Torres-Valenzuela et al., 
2019).  Traditional  drying  in  cement  patios  or  blankets  directly  to 
the ground  take advantage of  solar energy that is  often  varied due 
to  climatic  conditions  (Prada  et al.,  2019),  as  often  occurs  in  the 
central rainforest of Peru, with unexpected rains or prolonged periods 
of shade; also, large drying yard areas and personnel are needed to 
remove the  layer of  coee, collect at  sunset, cover  the beans with 
plastic, spread them out the next day and control the drying, under 
the risk of loss of quality due to slowness in the process; as well as 
contamination with dust, fungi and the presence of animals that aect 
the safety of the dried beans (López and Chávez, 2018).
An alternative solution is to dry the coee inside a solar dryer, 
which  produces  coee  beans  with  fewer  defects  (stains),  ensuring 
greater safety and better sensory quality (Quintanar and Roa, 2017). 
In addition, this process contributes to using less space because they 
have  shelves  and  drying  beds  (parihuelas),  with  plastic  covers  to 
avoid the collection of grains when it rains, reduce contamination due 
to the eect of trampling by operators or animals (Briceño-Martínez 
et al., 2020), obtaining an uneven drying if constant movements are 
not made to the mass of coee and control of the high temperatures 
reached in the interior (Cruz et al., 2010).
The  quality  of  dried  parchment  coee  depends  on  the  variety 
grown,  environmental  conditions,  agronomic  practices,  processing 
method, storage conditions (Tolessa et al., 2018), industrial processing 
and the nal preparation of the beverage (Pabón and Osorio, 2019), 
interrelated characteristics that when modied can favor or deteriorate 
the sensory characteristics of the beverage (Ramos and Criollo, 2017). 
Therefore, the drying process of coee beans is crucial to preserve the 
physical and sensory characteristics of the bean and the nal product 
(Guevara-Sánchez et al., 2019).
Due to the lack of uniformity in the quality of the coee lots dried 
on cement oors at the Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Perené (CAC 
Perené), which has 280 active members, for whom, at harvest time, the 
drying lines are insucient and do not guarantee uniform quality or 
the safety of the beans, a solar greenhouse prototype was implemented 
with appropriate technology under dierent conditions for its proper 
operation and use. In this dryer, both the air extractor and the heaters 
work with photovoltaic cells, taking advantage of solar energy. This 
isolated system requires a power bank and is used where the electrical 
grid does not reach, which is currently expensive. The construction 
of this type of dryer had the primary purpose of serving all partners, 
seeking to improve the quality of coee; due to the fact that, specialty 
coees with high levels of cup requirement (> 84 points) are more 
required  in  the  world  market  (Guevara-Sánchez  et al.,  2019). The 
use of solar energy accumulated in batteries was also prioritized to 
supply the extractors and heaters that operate at night, as indicated 
by the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (United 
Nations,  2018). These  variants were  tested in  the  greenhouse type 
solar dryer,  since there  are no references of  the adaptations  in this 
type of dryer. The reduction in drying time contributes to a greater 
number of producers beneting from this drying system, having more 
time available for other activities, as well as making their coee lots 
more uniform in order to achieve better prices. In this context, the 
objective of this research was to determine the eect of three variants 
of a prototype greenhouse solar dryer on the physical, sensory, and 
microbiological quality of dried parchment coee.