World first: Bühler builds low-emission coffee plant

Stefan Schenker, Head of Business Unit Coffee Processing at Bühler told FoodIngredientsFirst: “In general, coffee roasting operations are energy-intensive operations. In fact, coffee beans require high temperatures before they can develop the well-appreciated delightful flavor. Until now, the coffee industry was concerned with flavor development, quality assurance and emission and pollution control, but not energy-efficiency. This is changing,” he claims.

 

“In traditional plants, off-gas (air) from roasting equipment is released to the atmosphere with temperatures from 400°C to 700°C. Obviously, this is a big waste of energy. Moreover, it is driving operational costs. This new technology is ecological, but it also makes business sense.”

 

“In many parts of the world the mindset of the coffee industry is changing,” he explains. “Europe, particularly the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Switzerland, are at the forefront of this mindset-change.”

 

“While a few years ago “going green” has been just a buzz-word in corporate sustainability reports it has now become a great business opportunity. An increasing number of coffee roasters see a real competitive advantage in producing coffee in a sustainable manner. In many countries, well-informed consumers are willing to pay a higher price for a cup of coffee produced in a sustainable way.”

 

“I believe we are currently seeing the outset of a technology-revolution which will transform the coffee roasting industry. Technologies, such as the green coffee preheating unit, will eventually become an industry standard. Of course, flavor quality is always paramount. However, modern technology, such as green bean preheating, allow for energy savings without compromise on flavor quality,” he notes.

Coffee continues to be a growth market with growth rates of about 3 percent worldwide. After the considerable efforts of processors to achieve sustainable sourcing of green coffee, the focus is now being increasingly set on the manufacturing process in the coffee factory. This is because this process consumes a lot of energy: A factory with an annual processing capacity of 10,000 tonnes consumes roughly 870 kW – about as much as 100 Norwegian households.
 
For this low-carbon production plant, Bühler will supply the complete process technology – from green coffee intake to cleaning, blending, roasting, and grinding. For the roasting process, Bühler has fitted its Infinity Roaster with a unique preheating unit and a novel energy recovery system.

The system operates on the basis of collecting heat by multiple heat exchangers allowing centralized intermediate storage of the energy released by the process in temperature-stratified water tanks. The energy stored is largely used for powering the same roasting process and preheating of green coffee, but may also be reused – say – for raising the temperature of the incoming cold air. Some of the energy will also be used to heat the offices and laboratories.

This technology reduces the energy consumption of the roasting process by 50 percent, which accounts for as much as 80 percent of the entire energy consumption.
 
With this new processing plant, the company clearly aims to achieve an uncontested market position: “This project stands to boost our competitiveness in the marketplace. The system’s energy consumption slashed to the absolute minimum, is not only extremely sustainable but also makes sound business sense. In the processing industries, energy accounts for as much as 10 percent of the total cost. We are now the world’s sole producer that can offer its customers top-quality coffee that has been produced as environmental- and climate-friendly as possible, with excellent taste,” says Espen Gjerde, CEO of Joh. Johannson. The plant, which is to produce up to 12,000 tons of coffee annually, is scheduled to go on stream in mid-2019.