Coffee

Great coffee comes from great plants-

the best instant coffee comes from a GEA Niro plant.

 

Coffee is pleasure. Its taste, flavour, aroma, and refreshing effect make it unique. It is also a product that attracts great attention in the food and beverage industry. And in the technology used to manufacture canned liquid coffee as well as regular and agglomerated instant coffee GEA Niro sets the standards for others to follow.

Core Competences
GEA Niro technologies of liquids and solids processing of instant coffee, tea and cocoa are well-known and well-respected. For more than 50 years, GEA Niro has developed its coffee powder technology, and great emphasis has been placed on maintaining a leading position within coffee powder processing.

More than 200 plants have been delivered world-wide for instant coffee alone.

 

The GEA Niro core competences include:
• Green bean treatment
• Roasting
• Granulation

• Extraction
• Extract treatment – Separation, Filtration and Aroma recovery
• Concentration/Evaporation
• Spray Drying
• Agglomeration/granulation
• Freeze Drying

Special expertise is offered within the supply of plants for manufacturing heat sensitive aroma-based consumer products. Coffee powder processing systems from green bean treatment to premium instant coffee.

 

Green Bean Treatment
Coffee beans are seeds from coffee fruits. After removal of the pulp the green coffee beans are dried, cleaned and packed -typically in 60 kg bags- stored and subsequently transported around the world for further treatment, if required, also including decaffeination.

Various blendings of the coffee types is a common practice. This, together with the subsequent roasting gives the final characteristic of the coffee. Modern plants are, however, usually designed, so a blending of the different sorts of beans can take place after the roasting.

Roasting
Roasting is a delicate process, part art and part science, where the roast master must decide exactly how long and hard the beans are to be roasted to get the desired result. It is during roasting that the beans acquire the flavour and colour of the finished coffee.

Granulation (Milling) of Coffee Beans
To obtain the best possible quality (Aroma/yield) of coffee extract, it is important to granulate (mill) the roasted coffee beans to smaller fractions (bigger surface) of almost the same size. This is done in a specially designed GEA Niro grinding equipment.

Extraction
The GEA Niro coffee processing system features the latest development in extraction technique.

After granulation/milling of the coffee beans, the extraction process starts. GEA Niro supplies two types of extractors:

• The traditional continuous CONTEX™ is a non-pressurized extractor utilizing only the aroma fraction of the coffee beans and thereby a relative low yield, but an excellent extract for the high quality extract market like liquid coffee etc. The extraction time, however, is long.

• The importance of a short extraction time is fully incorporated in the IC batch operated multi-extraction perculator, manually operated as a continuous process, or in the fully automatic and most modern FIC™ Extractor. Both extractors are pressurized to obtain a high utilization of the coffee beans (high yield). With the FIC™ system water is introduced at two different stages to decrease the extraction time, and the resulting extracts fulfil whatever quality/yield requirement you may have.

Extract Treatment (Aroma Recovery)
To prevent the desired, and volatile, aroma components in the extract from being lost during thermal concentration, the extract fractions are stripped of their volatiles in an aroma recovery unit. The aroma fraction is mixed with the concentrated coffee extract. The aroma fraction of the extract can also be pre-concentrated using reverse osmosis in a membrane filtration system. This slightly changes the taste profile, which is an advantage for some few niche coffees and in some niche markets.

 
Concentration (Evaporation)
The concentration/evaporation of the coffee extract (usually without the aroma fraction) is done under lenient processing conditions in equipment designed specifically for coffee to ensure maximum aroma retention. Concentr ation serves the dual purpose of increasing the solids content in the extract prior to freeze or spray drying, and making the process as economical as possible.

They concentrate t he coffee extract gently, quickly, and efficiently. The evaporator preserves the taste components and produces an excellent concentrate for the production of convenient coffee. With GEA Niro’s freeze co ncentration process, aroma loss due to thermal degradation is eliminated. Alternatively membrane filtration (Reverse Osmosis) can be used to upconcentrate the coffee extract.

Spray Drying
Spray drying is an economic method of producing soluble coffee. For production of non-agglomerated powder the NOZZLE TOWER™ is used. Agglomerated powders are produced in the MSD™ (Multi-Stage Dryer)/ FSD™ (Fluidized Spray Dryer) or in the FILTERMAT™ Dryer. To maximize aroma retention, drying of the extract takes place under conditions, which ensure low powder temperatures.

Agglomeration

Agglomeration is used in cases where spray dried coffee powders need to be presented with bigger particles/agglomerates. An additional process stage is then used involving powder wetting, mechanical impact, after-drying and cooling. Control of wetting is carried out with water and/or saturated steam in an agglomeration chamber equipped with a rotating impacter. The agglomerates are then dried and cooled in the attached fluid bed, followed by sieving and packing. Fines and oversize fractions are reprocessed within the agglomeration plant.

Freeze Drying

Freeze drying is by far the most sophisticated process for producing instant coffee- freeze dried coffee is by far also the most value-added instant coffee and obtains the absolute highest prices – up to two times of spray dried.

With more than 50 ATLAS freeze drying plants for coffee around the world and a total of more than 200 delivered ATLAS freeze dryers, the process has been developed to the optimum quality and reliability of today.

 

GEA Niro supply solutions for all aspects of successful instant coffee production, making us the obvious supplier of individual plants as well as complete lines. Our solutions include our own unique technologies as well as equipment from trusted partners in coffee bean handling, roasting, and packing of the finished product.

 

No matter the plant or process line, our customer will experience not only  an increase in product quality, but also significant cost reductions due to efficient waste treatment and recycle systems. Our commitment extends beyond the actual plants. A strong international network of companies gives our customers the comfort of local service combined with the quality that comes from global presence.