UPS professor Pablo Parra Rosero, member of the Industrial Processes Research Group (Grupo de Investigación de Procesos Industriales GIPI) has developed an alternative technique to artificially dry cacao beans, the technique will guarantee the organoleptic qualities of the grain. The proposal is part of Professor Parra's research in his doctoral studies which he pursues in Universidad de Piura, in Peru. 

The technique can be used by cacao farmers during any time of year and without depending on weather conditions. This will reduce losses in the conventional drying process which is highly dependent of sunlight. The following two papers are related to this topic and have been published by IEEE XPLORE and indexed to SCOPUS
 
•    Modeling and simulation in distributed parameters for a dryer of cocoa beans.   

•    Design and Implementation of a Temperature Predictive Controller for a Dryer Plant of Cocoa Beans. 

Both articles can be found  in this link to the SCOPUS Data Base