Coffee is an important part of the Italian culture. Most experts agree the key to a good cup is how it is roasted. An Italian company has a novel and energy efficient method of roasting their beans.
Italian tech company PuroSole has developed an innovative installation that roasts coffee beans with renewable energy.
Almost six years in development, it is an energy efficient method using solar power.
Solar roasting
Daniele Tommei is one of the cofounders of PuroSole. “It’s the coffee, not the rotating basket or the air in it that we are heating,” he says.
“It’s the coffee itself being heated, the sun’s rays hitting coffee beans, heating them and causing the heating of the air surrounding it. But, essentially, the warmest part of all of this is the bean itself.”
PuroSole aims to drastically reduce the cost of large thermodynamic plants. Instead, they designed a small motorised reflector they say is totally self-sufficient.
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No fossil fuels just the sun
Electronic engineer and cofounder of PuroSole, Antonio Durbè, says: “We don’t use fossil fuels, such as gas, electricity. It is all purely and directly solar energy being concentrated on the bean, zero energy consumption.”
PuroSole say they save around 400 kilos of Co2 for every tonne of roasted beans. At a time when energy efficiency and reducing carbon footprint is high on the international agenda, this is good news.
The company now makes its own coffee and sells it online.
