Heat and mass transfer modeling of an artisan coffee roasting process: A comparative study

Abstract

In order to achieve effective coffee roasting control, there is a need for coffee roasting process models that can solve in real-time. This paper contributes by evaluating the roasting process model performance for different roasting time periods and bean moisture contents. The method firstly involved selecting roasting profile models from literature on the basis of their computational efficiency and simplified geometry definition of the coffee bean structure. Three models were considered constituting different bean temperature and moisture content sub-models. Next the modeled results were compared with experimental results obtained from an instrumented commercial artisan roaster. It was found that all three models could sufficiently predict the roast profile from the modeled bean temperature and moisture content. However, all three consistently overestimated the moisture content during roasting. For longer roasting times, the final moisture content prediction was closer to the experimental value.

Keywords:

• Roast profile
• degree of roast
• bean temperature
• moisture content

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.