Fluid Bed Roasting

The fluid bed roaster is quite different from the drum roaster in design and construction.  They can be compared to a similar roaster available to consumers to pop popcorn.  The coffee is introduced into a vertical column of heated air that is moving up the column fast enough to prevent the coffee from falling to the bottom or levitates them in a stream of hot air. The air temperature is controlled to facilitate the roasting process within the needed temperature range.

Generally speaking this roasting method takes less time to roast than drum roasting.  The only controllable variable in this roasting method is the air temperature.  Only small variations of the amount of coffee roasted per load can be made since the design of the air column floating the beans is dependant on the amount of beans in the column to a large extent.

After the beans are roasted they are either cooled down by cooling the roasting air temperature or a combination of this and dumping the beans into a cooling bin. The beans are now ready for packaging and shipping unless other processes are intended such as grinding or flavoring before packaging.

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