Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1492816
16 STiR coffee and tea | 2023 Issue 1 (February / March) Q|A: Thomas Koziorowski Q A Coffee roasting equipment has long relied on natural gas for heating. But concern about emissions and gas price spikes has driven interest in alternatives like electric systems. Now Probat, the venerable German manufacturer, has introduced the first hydrogen-powered roaster ever to hit the market, with the launch of a hydrogen version of its P05 shop roaster at its Connecting Markets symposium, held at its headquarters in Emmerich in September 2022. The company will roll out hydrogen machines across a full line of sizes, all the way up to retrofits for industrial-scale roasters. The P05 has a capacity of 17 kilograms per hour. The first commodity-size hydrogen-powered roaster — the Px 120 drum roaster, with an hourly roasting capacity of 500 kilograms — will be presented by Probat at the Interpack trade fair in Düsseldorf in May this year. Adaptations for even larger roasters are on the way. Costs are not much higher than for systems heated by natural gas. Hydrogen is being hailed as the clean fuel of the future. When it is produced through electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar, it is virtually free of carbon. When burned, it emits only water vapor. This makes hydrogen- Cleaner Roasting with Hydrogen Thomas Koziorowski, head of technology at Probat. Hydrogen burners will soon be a new heating option in Probat's line of coffee roasters, with retrofits also available. Probat's new technology went quickly from concept to market just when natural gas prices spiked.