Physical properties of Liberica coffee (Coffea liberica) berries and beans

Liberica coffee is the most important coffee species grown in Malaysia. However, there is little or no research at all conducted on coffee berries and green coffee beans since the plant itself is a low income crop in Malaysia. Therefore, research on Malaysian Liberica coffee can help to increase the knowledge of coffee farmers and coffee manufacturers in the processing and handling of the coffee. Physical properties of Liberica coffee berries and beans were investigated the current study. The properties investigated include the size, mass, density, coefficient of friction, angle of repose, fracture force and colour. In comparison to Arabica and Robusta coffee, Liberica coffee has the biggest size, mass, true density and fracture force values but were lower in bulk density in both berries and beans. The Liberica berries and beans were found to be orange-ish and yellowish colour respectively. Angle of repose was low and approximately similar in berries and beans while jute fibre gave the highest friction to both Liberica berries and beans

Evaluation of Fermentation Conditions by Candidatropicalis for Xylitol Production from Sago Trunk Cortex.

Xylitol production from sago trunk cortex hydrolysate using Candida tropicalis was evaluated in shake flasks and a bioreactor. The fermentation and kinetic behaviours of this microorganism were investigated using sago trunk cortex hydrolysate and commercial xylose as substrate. Results obtained for sago trunk hydrolysate were close to the commercial xylose with xylitol yield of 0.82 gg-1 and productivity of 0.39 gL-1h-1. The maximum specific growth rate, µmax for sago trunk cortex was higher (0.24 h-1) compared to commercial xylose (0.17 h-1). The bioreactor study showed an increase of about 6% (w/v) of xylitol concentration and 10% (v/v) of volumetric productivity when compared to the results obtained under the shake flasks, keeping xylitol yield above 0.8 g g-1

Design development of a unit operation for chilli paste process

The traditional method of chilli paste processes essentially consists of two main unit operations, namely blending of raw ingredients and cooking of liquefied chilli paste, accompanied by manual stirring. The transferring of blended food for cooking adds clean-up work and tends to waste time and energy. Substantive continuous stirring during the cooking process is essential, but time and labour consuming. In this study, a process design of a chilli paste machine has been developed with the aim to combine the process of blending and agitated cooking in a single appliance. A new design of machine called Chilli Paste Machine has been successfully built with the intention to overcome the issues present in making chilli paste. It comprises a set of blades that enable blending or stirring of chilli paste during blending and cooking processes respectively. A heating plate is installed for heating the chilli paste. The whole operation is controlled by a Programmable-Logic-Controller (PLC) Unit which allows automated control of the desired temperature parameters. The prototype machine was tested to ensure the performances of the machine design are met. A ready-to-serve batch of chilli paste was successfully produced using this newly designed machine

Physical properties of Malaysian coffee bean (Coffea Liberica)

In Malaysia, Liberica coffee is the most important coffee species grown in Malaysia. However, there is little or none at all research on coffee bean since the plant itself is a low income crop. Therefore, research on Liberica coffee can help to increase the knowledge of coffee farmers or coffee manufacturers in the processing and handling of the coffee beans. In this study, the physical properties of Liberica coffee beans were studied. The properties investigated include the size, mass, density, color and water activity. Green coffee beans used were processed by dry method where the crushed coffee berries were sun-dried for 7-21 days depending on the climate. The coffee beans were directly evaluated for their physical properties without any special treatment. Working environment temperature was approximately 27 °C. The initial moisture content of the beans is 13.85%. The measured values of length, thickness and width are 11.46, 4.53 and 7.54 mm respectively. The average bean mass was found to be 0.212 gm. Bulk density is 639.89 kg/m3. The color value of L*, a* and b* are 35.72, +7.28 and +22.06. The water activity has been determined as 0.663. The properties measured are important parameters to the quality and marketability of the coffee beans