An independent Oregon-based gourmet coffee roaster solved a major dust collection and material handling problem with the installation of a GPC Cyclonic Dust Collector from Aerodyne.
At this independent roaster's facility, coffee is roasted in a rotary drum where hot air is passed over the beans. During the roasting process, the outer layer of organic material, called the chaff, is burned off. Some of the chaff is then vented out of the roaster drum along with the hot air. The owner/operator developed a homemade wet scrubber to capture the chaff for disposal. A large steel box was fitted with several mist jets that spray the incoming dust and saturate it to the point it drops from the air stream. The saturated chaff material can then be collected for disposal. While this method of collection proved effective, it created a difficult disposal problem. The large amount of waste slurry generated daily became a maintenance nightmare. Searching for a better solution, the independent roaster chose to install a 600m3/hr GPC Dust Collector from Aerodyne.
The GPC is a compact, high-efficiency cyclonic dust collector. The unique "ground plate" design eliminates the need for a long, tapered cone as required by conventional cyclonic dust collectors. The compact size of this collector allows for installation in locations with low overhead clearances and reduces the need for tall maintenance scaffolding. The GPC Dust Collector is ideal for use as a pre-cleaner for baghouses and other filter-type dust collection equipment. Placing the GPC in front of the baghouse will increase both the bag life and the removal efficiency. Since the GPC has no moving parts or filters, it is easy to maintain and is well-suited for product recovery applications.
With the installation of the 600m3/hr GPC Dust Collector, the roaster's chaff disposal process became far more manageable. Because of its compact size, the GPC easily fit into the limited space allotted for the roasting operation. Placed as a pre-cleaner before the homemade wet scrubber, the GPC captures all but the finest of particulate, greatly reducing the amount of slurry waste. The dry chaff material collected by the GPC is easily disposed of.
