Process for roasting an agro-food product in a fluidized bed of inert particles
AssigneeAgence Nationale de Valorisation de la Recherche (ANVAR)
InventorsGilbert M. Rios, Henri Gibert, Jean Crouzet, Jean-Claude Vincent
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Abstract
The invention concerns a process and a device for roasting an agro-food product in the form of grains. The process consists of fluidizing an auxiliary body in the form of fine solid particles in an enclosure 1, and putting the grains of the product to be roasted in flotation in the fluidized bed of particles of which the temperature is adapted to roasting, to generate the roasting by the effect of the shocks of the fine particles of the auxiliary body with the grains of the product. The invention can be applied particularly for the roasting of grains of a product such as coffee, cocoa, etc.
Claims10
A process for roasting grains of an agro-food product of a type such as will swell and lose weight during heat treatment comprising:
- placing chemically inert particles in fluid suspension in an enclosure by means of a flowing carrier gas having a velocity greater than the minimum fluidization velocity of said particles so as to form a fluidized bed of said particles, said bed having a thickness of at most about 30 times the mean diameter of said grains and an apparent mean volume mass of about 1.2 to 4 times the initial volume of the grains to be roasted,
- bringing said bed to an elevated roasting temperature,
- introducing said grains into said bed so that said grains are in fluid suspension in said bed and allowing said grains to remain in said bed for a time sufficient to dry and to roast said grains, wherein during said drying and roasting the grains become lighter and rise to the top of the bed, and
- removing the roasted and dried grains from the top surface of said bed by overflow.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.