Introduction:

In Tena, individual cocoa production is limited by problems such as: high humidity in the environment, inefficient drying of the fruit, contamination (drying on roads), low value added and internal consumption.

Objective:

To evaluate the efficiency of a direct solar drying system for cocoa beans in Tena.

Materials and Methods:

A tent-type natural convention and direct tipe solar dryer was constructed for an experimental drying analysis for 5 kg of cocoa beans and evaluation of temperatures in the system, drying speed, humidity and thermal efficiency.

Results and Discussion:

During the experimental analysis, the average difference in air humidity outside and inside the dryer was 10 % during the hours of higher solar irradiation, in the first five days 40 % of the humidity was lost in the cocoa beans, while in the following three days 7 % of the humidity was reduced. The average efficiency of the solar dryer was 15.38 %. This indicates an adequate operation of the dryer; the results obtained were within the range of 3 % to 65%.

Conclusions:

The dryer’s efficiency was evaluated by drying 5 kg of fermented cocoa, obtaining at the end of the process 3.72 kg of cocoa with a humidity of 7 %. The main factors affecting the dryer’s efficiency are: the relative humidity of the sector, the solar radiation that falls on the solar dryer and the exposed area of cocoa.

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