The main objective of this work was to determine the consumption of energy during the drying using firewood and petrol-liquefied-gas, as fuels in some farms, as well as, to evaluate the possible reasons of variation in the cost among different producers. Twenty properties were visited and four were selected. The selection was made aiming at standardizing the technical and economic characterization of drying process. The standardization process adopted was the following: washing and separation of the coffee; separation of coffee which floats from the green-cherry; previous drying of the coffee cherry in yard, and complementary drying of cherry coffee using rotary dryer with 15,000 L capacity using firewood and petrol-liquefied-gas as fuels for heating the air. Six drying tests were accomplished using petrol liquefied gas and firewood. The analysis of the results leads to the following conclusions: the temperature variations of the air in the drying process that used firewood, as fuel were greater than those observed in the tests that used petrol-liquefied-gas. The consumption of petrol-liquefied-gas in the burner that used intermittent flame was greater when compared with a regulated burner to accomplish a constant heating. The consumption of the fuel of petrol-liquefied-gas or firewood is strongly related to the management adopted in the drying process.
Coffea arabica L; drying; firewood; petrol-liquefied-gas
