What is agglomeration of coffee?
Agglomeration means getting smaller particles to adhere to each other to form a powder consisting of bigger conglomerates/agglomerates, which are essential for an easy reconstitution in water. To produce a powder that is easily reconstituted, i.e. wetted, dispersed and dissolved in water – hot or cold – a powder consisting of single particles often falls short.
The so-called 'instant' powders are today generally required by the end users. Modern spray dryers like the MSD™/FSD™ can produce powders in an agglomerated form ready to be dissolved in water. Powders from traditional spray dryers producing single particles can be "made instant" in a special agglomeration plant by a combination of rewetting the surface of the particles and a mechanical treatment to make the single particles 'glue' together before redrying and cooling.
Depending upon product, different agglomeration techniques are applied:
• For milk products with high protein content, the particle surface is wetted by warm moist air condensing on the surface of the particles. After a mechanical impact, the formed agglomerates are dried again.
• For milk products with high fat content, the particle surface is wetted by droplets of water. The agglomeration takes place by collision of the wetted particles followed by redrying.
• For coffee the agglomeration takes place on a rotating drum. Here the coffee particles that have been wetted by a mixture of steam and water form agglomerates before they are discharged into a VIBRO-FLUIDIZER™ for final drying and cooling.
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