Coffee Processing Plants

Coffee processing is a method in which raw coffee is converted into the commodity green coffee. The seed or the bin is extracted from the main fruit which is later dried. Different types of methods are applied for processing different types of coffees. Dryer, roaster, sorter, polisher, etc are some of the machines that are used for processing coffee.

Wet Process
The first process is sorting the coffee. The suitable coffee fruit is separated from bad fruit. Skin and pulp is removed by pressing the fruit inside the water by machine through screen. In ferment or wet process, removal of pulp from fruits takes several days whereas by using machine the extra pulps are scrubbed off. The moisture content of the coffee is dried by using drier.

Dry Process
In dry process the cherries are dried completely in the open sun. After drying the skin, pulp and parchment are removed from the bean.

Sorting Grading
Once the coffee is dried to green coffee it is sorted by hand or machine to remove debris and bad or misshapen beans. The coffee is also often sorted by size and placed into one of several grades.

Polishing
coffee beans are also sometimes polished to remove the silver skin which helps in improving the green coffee beans appearance and eliminate a byproduct of roasting called chaff.

Decaffeination
In decaffeination caffeine is extracted from green coffee beans prior to roasting. Decaffination is done through contacting green coffee with supercritical carbon dioxide(CO₂) extraction. The caffeine is later recovered from the CO₂. Decaffeination is also acheived through solvent extraction.

Coffee Roasting
Coffee is roasted in a roaster and then marketed for the use of consumers. Consumers can also elect to buy unroasted coffee to be roasted at home.