COFFEE PNEUMATIC CONVEYING: REDUCING BEAN BREAKAGE & SEGREGATION

Preserving Coffee Quality: how dense phase pneumatic conveying eliminates bean breakage and segregation

In the competitive landscape of the food industry, maintaining the organoleptic properties and physical integrity of coffee is a top priority for producers. However, moving product from the roaster to the packaging line presents significant challenges: roasted coffee beans are extremely fragile, while ground coffee blends are highly susceptible to segregation.

NTE Process has successfully addressed these issues for a leading Italian coffee company through an innovative application of dense phase pneumatic conveying.

The Challenge: Fragility and De-mixing

After roasting, coffee beans become brittle, making them prone to shattering during traditional high-speed transport. Simultaneously, ground coffee often experiences “demiscelazione” (segregation) when moved from degassing silos to capsule-filling or packaging machines.

The Solution: Air Assist® M366 Technology

To overcome these obstacles, NTE Process implemented a next-generation system utilizing Air Assist® M366 technology. This solution operates by:

• Low-Velocity Transport: Moving material at significantly lower speeds compared to traditional dilute phase systems.
• Controlled Air Injection: Strategically placed Air Assist units inject compressed air (or nitrogen) at controlled volumes and pressures.
• Plug Flow (Tubo Pieno): The system pushes the material gently, creating regular “slugs” or plugs of product that fill the pipe.
• Friction Reduction: Working at full-pipe capacity reduces resistance, internal friction, and impacts within the line.

Proven Results for the Coffee Industry

The implementation of this system delivered measurable improvements in both product quality and operational efficiency:

• Minimized Breakage: Bean breakage was reduced to less than 0.1%.
• Maintained Blend Consistency: Drastic reduction in segregation phenomena for ground coffee.
• Versatile Distances: The system manages pressure lines for roasted beans ranging from 90m to 160m with flow rates of 3 to 6 t/h.
• Vacuum Technology: Ground coffee is handled at 2.5 t/h over distances of 60m using vacuum dense phase technology.
• System Reliability: The lines remain full and can restart easily even after accidental stops.

Test Your Process at the NTE Scientific Hub

Quality assurance is critical in coffee processing. At the NTE Scientific Hub, partners can conduct full-scale 1:1 tests in a pilot plant to obtain certain data on the advantages of these solutions before full implementation.

NTE Process serves as a Single Source Provider, offering end-to-end solutions from conveying and mixing to liquid injection and packaging.

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