AGGLOMERATION PROCESS AND APPARATUS THEREFOR

摘要

The invention relates to a process and apparatus to agglomerate soluble coffee particles. The process comprises feeding a curtain of soluble coffee particles to an agglomerator. The curtain falls between a pair of steam distributors (66, 68) which spray steam which intersects the particles causing wetting and fusion of coffee particles to form agglomerates. The moist agglomerates pass through a tempering zone where they are partially surface dried by a draft of laminar air of a temperature less than 200 DEG F (93.3 DEG C) which moves downward with the agglomerates. The agglomerates are collected on a moving continuous belt (48), transferred to a drier and are subsequently dried to a moisture content of 5% or less. A process is also disclosed for darkening a light-colour, granular soluble coffee product.