#TechTalk: From Beans to Breaths

Coffee roasting creates the flavor and aroma consumers enjoy, but it also generates emissions that require effective air pollution control.
Coffee roasting produces a complex stream of gases, odors, moisture, and particulate.

According to the U.S. EPA, principal emissions include particulate matter (PM), VOCs, organic acids, and combustion products. The roaster is the primary source of gaseous pollutants, while particulate can also originate from bean handling, roasting, cooling, and destoning. Roaster exhaust may contain alcohols, aldehydes, organic compounds, carbon monoxide, odors, smoke, and coffee chaff.

Both roasting and cooling exhaust should be considered when evaluating emissions.

Capture and Pretreatment Matter

Effective control begins before the oxidizer. Coffee chaff and particulate can foul downstream equipment and increase maintenance requirements.

Cyclones, mechanical collectors, or fabric filters may be used based on the process and particle characteristics. EPA identifies particulate removal followed by thermal or catalytic oxidation as a common approach for roasting emissions.

The control strategy must address the entire exhaust stream not VOCs alone.

Selecting the Right Control Technology

Technology selection depends on airflow, pollutant concentration, temperature, moisture, particulate loading, required control efficiency, and energy use.

DFTOs can be suitable for smaller or more concentrated exhaust streams.

Recuperative Thermal Oxidizers use heat exchangers to recover energy and reduce supplemental fuel demand.

RTOs use ceramic media for regenerative heat recovery and can be well suited for larger, dilute exhaust streams.

Catalytic oxidation and other technologies may also be appropriate for specific applications. No single technology is ideal for every coffee producer.

Engineering Beyond the Roaster

Successful control requires more than selecting an oxidizer.

Source capture, particulate management, exhaust characteristics, energy recovery, space, maintenance, permitting, and future production should guide system design.

Ship & Shore Environmental engineers air pollution control solutions around each facility’s specific process requirements.
Cleaner coffee production begins with smarter engineering from the roaster and cooler to the exhaust stack.

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📧 Email: service@shipandshore.com