STiR coffee and tea magazine

42 STiR coffee and tea | 2023 Issue 2 (April / May) Coffee degassing Starting with roasting, the coffee begins to release carbon dioxide, initiating a degas- sing process. However, "natural" degassing is now unsuitable for the coffee industry: it takes too long, is influenced by climatic and environmental variables, as well as the different characteristics of the blends, and increases the risk of product contact with oxygen, resulting in oxidation and loss of quality. It is, however, essential to prevent excessive CO 2 residue from escaping after packag- ing, causing the vacuum packs to bulge and the top of single-dose capsules to peel off. Nowadays, it is therefore necessary to force and carefully control the process at every stage: from bean delivery to grinding, to feeding the degassing silos, to storage and con- servation, to transport to the packaging machines, while improving it where possible. Made in Italy innovation and research In degassing processes, it is established practice to use nitrogen, an inert gas that does not alter the characteristics of the coffee, sometimes under vacuum conditions, albeit with not very high depressions. However, it has been proven that the simple introduc- tion of nitrogen into the silos, which is effective in preserving the organoleptic charac- teristics of the coffee, does not affect degassing times. The main innovation introduced by the Degassing system ® was to use high vac- uum, with very high pressures down to –800 mbar (compared to the –200 mbar of systems on the market) alternating with high pressure cycles with nitrogen injection (up to +300 mbar). The right combination of these two phases accelerates the degassing process, causing greater stress on the walls of the coffee cells, which in this way release CO 2 more quickly, saving up to 40% time, also thanks to a more uniform distribution of nitrogen throughout the volume inside the silo. High vacuum, high efficiency, highest quality The Degassing system ® was the first in the world to use high vacuum technology from the transport of the beans to the grinder to the transport of the ground material to the silos and from the silos to the packaging and for the storage of the product at the end of the degassing process. Degassing system. The High-Vacuum Advantage: Degassing System ® by BMM/Colombini Since 2017, Colombini has been distributing the innovative Degassing system®, produced by BMM Technology, the first to use high vacuum technology to accelerate degassing and the only one, even today, capable of significantly reducing energy consumption and nitrogen requirements throughout the process, from grinding to storage to packaging, always in zero-oxygen conditions. Degassing system ® with Colombini MAC3 grinder.

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