Bühler to build eco-friendly coffee processing plant for Jon. Johannson
Joh. Johannson produces and markets coffee under the Ali and Evergood brands. The company offers blending, roasting, grinding, and packaging services and is based in Oslo, Norway. It is a subsidiary of NorgesGruppen.
Infinity Roaster
As part of the project, Bühler will supply the complete process technology – from green coffee intake to cleaning, blending, roasting, and grinding.
For the roasting process, it will install its Infinity Roaster with preheating unit and energy recovery system.
The facility will also have one of the most advanced off-gas purification units for roasting systems: Regenerative thermal oxidation (RTO) for smart control of air currents, which enables heat to be stored and returned to the process.
“This project stands to boost our competitiveness in the marketplace. The system’s energy consumption, slashed to the absolute minimum, is not only sustainable, but makes sound business sense,” said Espen Gjerde, CEO, Joh. Johannson.
“In the processing industries, energy accounts for as much as 10% 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.”
Green coffee
The Bühler energy recovery 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 for example, for raising the temperature of the incoming cold air and to heat the offices and laboratories.
The technology reduces the energy consumption of the roasting process by 50%, which accounts for as much as 80% of the entire energy consumption.
“Together with our customer Johannson, we are setting a new eco-standard in the field of coffee production,” said Stefan Schenker, head, Bühler Coffee Processing.
He added, in the last eight years Bühler has built and successfully commissioned many coffee roasting plants around the globe. For example, last year it commissioned the complete production facility for Chicco d’Oro, Switzerland (the fifth largest coffee manufacturer in Switzerland), including two InfinityRoast-2000 with a throughput capacity of 4 tons per hour.
Another large coffee roasting line was delivered to Korea. In 2017, Bühler commissioned more than 100 roasting units around the world, ranging from the small RoastMaster20 roaster, medium-sized RoastMaster-60 and RoastMaster-120 (500 kg/h) up to complete, integrated large plant solutions, covering the entire value chain from green coffee intake, handling, cleaning, roasting, grinding, degassing.
