The present study was accomplished in the "Pólo de Tecnologia em Pós-Colheita de Café", at the "Universidade Federal de Lavras", MG, Brazil. Its objective was to investigate the distribution of temperature and moisture content in the radial direction of the rotary dryer. For the test accomplishment, two dryers of the Pinhalense mark were used concomitantly with a 5,000 kg capacity. In a dryer, firewood was used and in the other GLP, as fuels for air heating. The air drying and coffee mass temperature were determined by means of thermocouples distributed on eighteen ends of the dryer. The readings of all the temperatures recorded on the dial were done every half an hour. Moisture content loss was followed in nine points in coffee mass. It was found that the values of temperature in the plenum presented less oscillation in the drying which used GLP. Furthermore, regardless the sort of fuel, there were found maximum temperature gradient of 20 °C and three percents points of moisture content in the radial direction in central section, as consequence of the higher values of static pressure (637.84 Pa) in the plenum observed in this section. Regardless the kind of fuel, the temperature gradient measured in the longitudinal sense of the coffee mass was substantially less in the radial direction.
gradient; drying; Coffea arabica L
