Sustainability—and environmental sustainability as one of its key elements—is now high on the agenda at specialty coffee symposiums. The Sustainability Council of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) recently published a comprehensive green guide for coffee industry stakeholders. Does this mean we are finally on the verge of a major shift toward greener coffee business practices?
Many steps can and should be adopted to reduce the environmental footprint of the coffee industry, from farmers and roasters to consumers.
Coffee-Tech jumped on the green bandwagon from the very beginning through our commitment to energy efficiency and toxin reduction. We believe it is about time the choice between atmospheric and premix burners becomes a vital part of the sustainability debate.
Atmospheric vs. Premix Burners
An atmospheric burner is a self-aspirating system that mixes fuel with primary air supplied at atmospheric pressure, much like your average gas water heater. In a premix burner, air is forced into a mixing chamber where it is combined with fuel in exactly the right amount before the mixture is projected into the combustion chamber.
Most shop to mid-sized roasters on the market use atmospheric burners because they are easy to modulate and cheap to produce. However, they are a source of pollution caused by incomplete combustion. Premix burners ensure complete combustion, which keeps toxic byproducts to a minimum.
Your Health and the Environment
The number-one concern to bear in mind when you are on the lookout for a new roaster is efficiency. This is essentially the same as asking how polluting your burner will be. A roasting machine does not just release noxious gases through a tall chimney high into the atmosphere. Because roasting is practiced indoors, you are literally part of the environment. Whatever toxic gases are ultimately produced, both you and your machine are breathing them.
While we are all dedicated to superb coffee, a passion for roasting should not expose you to high concentrations of toxins like carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). These are the chemical compounds responsible for making acid rain and smog toxic. To put it simply, atmospheric burners should be phased out in favor of well-designed premix burners.
A premix burner combined with an efficient projecting nozzle has ultra-low NOx specs. It also produces energy efficiently while eliminating soot accumulation in the drum, which would otherwise be absorbed by your beans. Every one of Coffee-Tech’s roasters utilizes a premix turbo gas burner. Coffee-Tech has been practicing environment-friendly roasting from the very beginning because the environment we keep in mind includes all of you roasters within the "roasto-sphere."
More on the indispensable topic of burners in an upcoming post…
