2012 OptiDry

The Project is developed by the Research Group on Biomass and Optimization of Thermal Systems – BIOT of the National University of Colombia in cooperation with the Department of Agricultural Engineering of the University of Kassel (DIA) for the aromatic plants production company Morenos Ltda. This Project is financed by the Colombian Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation - Colciencias under the contract number 279 – 2010-

The aim of the project is to make an optimization of the drying process currently implemented Morenos Ltda. located in the near of Bogotá (Colombia). The optimization is made taken into account both energetic and quality control considerations. The developed activities include the implementation of a quality control laboratory in the National University of Colombia and Morenos Ltda., the characterization of aromatic plants in the Unal and the DIA, the carrying out of an energy evaluation of the actual process and the implementation of improvements in Morenos Ltda. and the mathematical model of the process.

The results of the project are going to be presented in a seminar to be organized by the BIOT group in Colombia The figure shows an schematic representation of a drying line in Morenos Ltda. It is compound by a heating system that uses coffee shells combustión as energy source and a drying sytem with hot air.

posdoctoral research : Dr. Patricia Cuervo Andrade