Síntese e análise do processo de secagem artificial de amêndoas de cacau

Abstract

The thermal drying is present in the processing of raw materials for various industries such as petrochemical, pulp, agricultural, pharmaceutical and food stage. Often is conducted at low energy efficiency. However, studies for the classification of convective dryers through the heuristic method has been frequently discussed. In this sense, we propose to study the drying of Cocoa beans to be a very important regional product to northern Espírito Santo state, using a fixed bed dryer, typically used for drying raw materials of regional interest sensitive to breakage and excessive temperature. The work steps involve the establishment of the synthesis problem, determination of viable structure for the drying process, recognition and use of experimental unit, sample preparation, driving tests, determination of properties, analysis of the drying experiments, analysis of the experimental data and process performance. Hopefully, with this study, the classification of the best dryer for the product to be dried in the process of convective drying, so that we can analyze not only the kinetics of drying, moisture profiles, speed, temperature, shrinkage material, analysis of energy efficiency, but also predict the evolution of form and the consequent degradation of his physical integrity, thereby contributing to the scientific evolution of drying processes, through convection, based on fundamental knowledge of transport phenomena, and process control.