Rancang bangun alat pengering rumput laut dengan sistem solar dryer dan heater otomatis berbasis mikrokontroler

Abstract

One of the efforts to improve the quality of seaweed one of the important marine resources is by drying system that aims to reduce the moisture content. In general, the drying process is carried out in outdoor using a tarp to prevent from sand contaminated . The purpose of this research is to produce seaweed drying instrument with automatic solar dryer and heater system based on microcontroller and to analyze drying seaweed for its level of dried quality. The steps of research are : the design of instrument space, electronic systems, and software design, field test and dried seaweed quality analysis. Electronic system consisting of microcontroller ATmega 32 as the main controller, module DS 1307 as a marker of time, Module SHT 11 as temperature and humidity, data acquisitiq LCD 16x2 as display data temperature, humidity and time recording, SD card for data storage. Field test results obtained temperature range at dryer room is about 32.7 – 64.0 oC and the humidity ranges from 21-85.9% whereas the environmental temperature range about 29.1 – 46.9 oC and humidity range about 37.1-75.6%. The rate of weight loss inside instruments about 0.41-18.33 gr/min whereas conventional drying about 0-15.83 gr/min. Analysis of quality test results for dried seaweed in the dryer show moisture content of gray levels at 18%, 45.61%, fat show the water content 0.59%, 9.20%, protein and carbohydrate levels 26.28%, whereas in conventional drying have at 18% moisture content, ash content 48.90% 0.59%, fats, proteins and carbohydrates, 8.53%, 23.46%, respectively