Research and Development on Green Tea (Camellia sinensis L. Kuntz.) Steamer at Farmer Level

Abstract

The process of green tea production steam is rather new for the Thais and is not currenty under practice in farmer’s level. The research was to test and develop green tea steamer which was consisted of two components namely a box shape boiler and green tea steamer. A box shape boiler having combustion chamber was as a fits base and a smoke collecting chamber was on top of the boiler. Inside the boiler were set of 21 tubes connect between wails of the combustion chamber and the wall of the smoke collecting chamber. The boiler could produce steam of the volume of 18 kg./h at the steam temperature of 128 °c. using liquefied petroleum gas of 2.2 kg/h. The thermal efficiency was 79%. The green tea steamer consisted of five parts namely a base unit, an upper structure, a padding shaft, a motor (0.4 kw.) and a steaming chamber. The steaming chamber has three parts: a feeder, a steam chamber and a transportation tube. The padding shaft operates at 120 rpm and the transportation tube rotate at 70 rpm in opposite direction of the paddling shaft. The capacity of the green tea steamer was 23 kg/h with approximate steaming time of 10-12 seconds.