RESUMEN
The study aims to test if Ecuadorean coffee's symbolic and material contents agree with the instrumental analysis and grading protocols. We studied the relationship between the chemical composition and the organoleptic characteristics of eight non-specialty and six specialty coffee samples. Firstly, the study addresses the grading following the Specialty Coffee American Association (SCAA) method. The second stage focuses on the qualitative composition of the coffee brews employing GC-MS and caffeine concentrations using HPLC. Then, we employed statistical tools such as Cohen's concordance coefficients, dissimilarity dendrograms, and linear correlations between the chemical compounds in the beverage and the attributes' scores. The grading panel consisted of 6 semi-trained-testers who would assess if the primary cultural capital can provide a criterion to identify specialty coffee. The variety of compounds allowed the evaluators to distinguish between commercial and specialty coffees. However, the composition analysis identified molecules that would imply greater gradation in the tasting, a prevision that was not reflected in the results. Finally, we confirmed that basic training could create cultural capital to distinguish non-specialties from specialty coffees through their chemistry and organoleptic attributes.
RESUMEN
Globally, the greenhouses' farming area comprises 500 000 ha, and they efficiently produce more than half of the vegetables consumed around the world. Nevertheless, high-yield crops tend to be incredibly energy-intensive. This study proposes designing and building a coupled geothermal heat pump for a 470 m2 greenhouse in the Andean zone conditions addressing a requirement of 15 °C at night and 30 °C during the day. Firstly, the study determined the energy potential of the solar and geothermal sources employing actual measurements and contrasting the results with theoretical models. Then, it developed an energy balance in the greenhouse to size the geothermal heat pump using the vapor compression cycle. Finally, the comprehensive system was built and evaluated through the Leveled Cost of Heat (LCOH). The operation requires a potential of 29.56 and 65.76 kW for heating and cooling; this is technically feasible when running the system with a heating flow driven by an optimized temperature ramp of 1.64 °C h-1. Also, the capacity factor (CF) shows that a lifespan between 12 to 14 years is required to reach acceptable LCOH when CF is as low as 0.45. Financially, it is necessary to foster customs exemptions to make it competitive versus more traditional sources such as electricity and LPG since the main components of the heat pump and the geothermal exchanger are not produced locally and represent nearly 70 % of the upfront costs.
RESUMEN
In Ecuador, the net energy contribution of biofuels is unknown or unnoticed. To address this issue, we determined the Energy Return on Investment (EROI) for bioethanol and biodiesel. The selection of raw materials relied on their productive capacity, export and import records, and historical yields. Consequently, the scope included three raw materials for ethanol (sugar cane, corn, and forest residues) and four for biodiesel (African palm, pinion, bovine fat, and swine fat). Using a method based on the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of each biofuel, we assessed the entire production chain through statistical processing of primary and secondary information. Then we calculated the calorific values in the laboratory, compared energy inputs/outputs, and finally obtained the energetic returns. EROIs for bioethanol were: 1.797 for sugarcane, 1.040 for corn, and 0.739 for wood. The results for biodiesel were: 3.052 for African palm, 2.743 for pinion, 2.187 for bovine fat, and 2.891 for swine fat. These values suggest feasibility only for sugarcane in the case of ethanol. In contrast, biodiesel has better prospects because all the feedstocks analyzed had EROIs higher than two. Nevertheless, biodiesel is not available for trading in Ecuador because energy policy has overlooked systems based on higher energy return. Future studies should consider more comprehensive variables such as climate change, land use, and water management.
