Sucafina unveils fully electric coffee roasting line
Image: Pexels/Tom Swinnen
Sucafina, the sustainable farm-to-roaster coffee company, has announced the construction of the first industrial-scale, fully electric coffee roasting line. This initiative, undertaken by Beyers Koffie, a Sucafina subsidiary, in collaboration with CEE, a Belgian cleantech company, marks a step towards a more sustainable and environmentally conscious coffee industry.
“I firmly believe that we need to play our part in reshaping the coffee industry for the better,” said Nicolas A Tamari, CEO of Sucafina. “To encourage society as a whole to make more responsible choices, companies must take the lead. Sucafina welcomes this responsibility and will continue to act on it, as we’ve shown through the farmer connect traceability venture and our IMPACT responsible sourcing programme. Together, we can create opportunities to improve lives and drive significant change towards making coffee the first net positive commodity.”
Coffee roasting with zero emissions and superior energy efficiency
At the heart of this project lies CEE’s innovative technology. This utilises electricity powered by green energy to eliminate the need for fossil fuels. As a result, it produces zero CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion. Moreover, this technology boasts an impressive energy efficiency rate, using approximately 2.5 times less energy than the current industry standard and also outperforming hydrogen alternatives.
“We are on the brink of a clean industry revolution,” remarked Koen Bosmans, CEO of CEE. “Our collective goal is to implement this game-changing technology across the entire coffee sector at an industrial scale. Additionally, we are already applying this technology to many large bulk food categories, from coffee to cocoa, malt, and nut manufacturing. Replacing fossil-fuel-based technology in these sectors is our primary objective, and our technology makes it already achievable.”
A new era of coffee roasting
The new technology not only contributes to environmental sustainability but also enhances coffee quality and safety. The high-precision continuous roasting process gently roasts coffee beans at lower temperatures. This marks a departure from traditional roasting methods.
“At Beyers Koffie, our vision is to be the leading sustainable private-label coffee roaster,” said Cory Bush, CEO of Beyers Koffie. “We want to go further and inspire our entire industry to do more. That’s why we’ve partnered with CEE to scale up this zero-emissions roasting line. They are a partner who not only shares our ambition but also our values.”