Meeting Time
Thursday 7pm
Project Description
Our specific goal this semester is to design or procure a reliable, off-grid steam generator to support coffee bean processing in rural Indonesian communities. Currently these communities are relying on sun-drying to dry their coffee beans – a method that is vulnerable to unpredictable weather, contamination, and drying inconsistency that reduces efficiency and the quality of the product overall. We are working with stakeholders at Bina Nusantara University and local farmers in Kendal, near Mount Ungaran, to replace this outdated method with a biomass-powered vacuum dying system. The vacuum itself has already been procured, and we are tasked with finding a way to power it via biomass. The proposed system would use locally sources agricultural waste, such as coffee husks and rice stalks as fuel, minimizing costs, reducing dependence on gas and fossil fuels, and improving product quality.