Processing and Drying of Coffee – A Review

Drying is mainly concern for the degradation of the moisture content up to a certain limit12%
(w.b). Drying diminishes the respiration rate of the product and increases the storage time with the
minimum possible loss. If the beans are over dried it will be brittle in nature and if moisture content is
more than safe storage moisture then there is a probability of mold growth in the beans for further
processing. (Ghosh, P. et al 2014)

Temperatures must be monitored during natural and artificial drying. Coffee temperature should
not exceed 40°C for parchment and 45°C for cherries. It is often thought that overheating can only occur
in mechanical dryers. There are mainly 2 types of dryers, static and revolving. In revolving dryers, there
are tray dryers with stirrer, vertical dryers and rotary dryers, cascade driers, column driers, and flex
driers. In all the cases woods, coffee husk, other solid fuel, fuel oils, diesel, gases are used as the main
fuel or energy sources. (Ghosh, P. et al 2014)

Ghosh, P., & Venkatachalapathy, N. (2014, December 24). Processing and drying of coffee
– a review. International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology. Retrieved February 19,
2023, from https://www.ijert.org/processing-and-drying-of-coffee-a-review
 Characteristic of Vertical Mixed Flow Dryer in Coffee Bean Drying
Process

Coffee bean drying using vertical mixed flow pattern with sloped-tray performed contact
between hot air and bean individually. This contact leads to increase in the coefficient of convection heat
transfer and increase the mass transfer coefficient. Higher convection heat transfer coefficient affects to
heat energy flowing easily. ( Sutrisno et al 2020 )

At air velocity and temperature of 2 m/s and 60 o C, subsequently, the coffee bean can be dried
from 52% initial MC to final 14% MC for 11,5 hours in this dryer. The drying rate can be increased by
increasing air temperature and velocity, and humidity. The tray installed in the drying chamber has a role
to retard drying contact time between air and coffee bean so that temperature of bean raises and leads
to increase water diffusivity in the endosperm. ( Sutrisno et al 2020 )

Sutrisno et al 2020 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 771 012070