GCR|Golden Cooler Runnings Honey Dehydrator

This is a system that can reduce the water percentage of stingless bee honey with a microcontroller to control the drying process employing temperature, drying air speed, relative humidity, and optimized honey exposure surface. The main objective is to reduce water content in stingless bee honey at 22 % in order to prevent rapid fermentation and delay crystallization. This water reduction process is important to preserve the quality and extend the storage period of honey. The system comprises of a programmed microcontroller, a main insulated container, a 12 V and 400 ml/min peristaltic pump, a 2800 Watt hair dryer, a temperature and relative humidity sensor, an exhaust fan, a perforated stainless steel tray, and a switching circuit / a controller circuit. In this system, the temperature control was achieved using an on-off controller.

CURRENT PROBLEMS (NEED)

• Stingless bee honey that contains high moisture has adverse affect  to the honey quality thus change the unique and exquisite taste.

• To maintain the quality of their honey at 22 % (according to Malaysian Standard (MS) 2683 Kelulut (Stingless bee) honey – Specification) in order to prevent rapid fermentation and delay crystallization.
• Fermenting honey inside sealed bottle tends to produce gas and thus may cause the bottle to break or explode.

PRODUCT (APPROACH)

• Reducing the water content percentage to 22% through controlled heating.
• Maintaining the temperature to be less than 40⁰ Celsius / preserving the important nutrient and eliminate HMF built-up.
• Increasing the dehydration rate of moisture from the honey through four strategies: controlled temperature level, high airflow speed over the stingless bee honey, optimized drying air relative humidity level, and increase the exposed surface area of honey to the drying air.

PRINCIPLE
An electronic sensor temperature and relative humidity sensor, a peristaltic pump, and a micro-processor module were used to control the process. The system takes advantage of the properties of liquids and uses condensation process to dehydrate pure stingless bee honey. In order to heat up the stingless bee honey for condensation, a heating source or element which simply hair dryer was used. The general ideas about the processing cycle of system are as follows: initially, the raw stingless bee honey is poured onto the bottom of the main insulated container of a 40 liter cooler box. The user select the operation mode: manual mode or automatic mode and set the desired input parameters. When the start button is pressed, a peristaltic pump with the specification of 12 V and 400 ml/min, runs continuously and transfers the raw stingless bee honey through a silicon tubing from the bottom of the container to the surface of a perforated stainless steel tray (inside the 40 liter cooler box) that positioned at a location close to the source of drying hair to expose heat to the flowing honey as much as possible. The pure stingless bee honey then settled underneath the bowl prior to trickling from the perforated stainless steel bowl, and the whole cycle repeats. At the same time, the liquid is exposed to warm air produced by the 2800 Watt hair dryer, the temperature is controlled at 40°C, otherwise, the heater is turned off and the warm air inside the container is purged out through an outlet with an exhaust fan.

Main Features

Two operating modes:

1. “MANUAL” mode: the operating time is set between 1 minute and 9 hours by using the 4 × 4 matrix keypad.
2. “AUTO” mode: the initial stingless bee honey water content percentage is preset, the total amount of stingless bee honey volume in grams, and the final stingless bee honey water content percentage by using the 4 × 4 matrix keypad as shown above. Then, the microcontroller board will calculate the operating time.

DUAL-AND-ALTERNATE-MODE PERISTALTIC PUMPS SYSTEM (DAAMPPS):

Alternating pumps system: only one pump remain turn on while other remain turn off. In every 15 minutes, the pump switch their operation: the turned on pump switch to off and the turned off pump switch to on that’s why it is called Dual and Alternate Mode Peristaltic Pumps. The pump life become more longer as they don’t run continuously for a long time and get enough rest in the working time.

BENEFITS

• Fast return of Investment (ROI).
• Shelf-life of the product is expected more than 2 years.
• Continuous system improvement and extended warranty.
• Affordable especially for small and medium enterprises.
• Comply with MS 2683 Stingless Bee Honey Standards.