Smoke treatment advice

[Bradleysteenkamp]

Hello,

We currently roast on a 25kg Joper BPR machine with no afterburner. We are in a rural location on an industrial estate but have two houses within 100m of our unit. Unfortunately one of those residents has complain about a 'burnt toast' smell to the council and they are now investigating is it indeed a nuisance. It appears the law is on the side of the resident but as their house is 100m away from the property I can't see how it is that much of a nuisance.

Anyway we need to investigate ways to reduce the smell and I really don't want to invest £15000 to purchase an afterbuner just to satisfy one person. It's a waste of money, gas and would double our CO2 output.

Does anyone have any advice on smell reduction using electrostatic filters or other methods? My first plan is to increase the chimney height and to change the cap to see if we can get the smoke to rise to a higher level. But I'm still concerned the council may give us no option but to look at other more effective forms of treatment.

Thanks
Bradley

 

[JumpinJakJava]

I am sorry I cannot answer to the efficiency of electrostatic filtering. But have you considered doing your roasting in the wee hours of the morning while your neighbors are sleeping? I know this is a may be a major inconvenience but it would most likely save the expenses you are looking at. I have never been to the UK, but understand your days often are overcast and this will certainly suppress the release of smoke into the atmosphere. So I do not think extending the stack or modifying the cap will help much. Hope you get a cost effective resolution.

 

[Seb]

I do use an electrostatic filter and it works really well but is more work to keep it clean and if it's not clean enough it won't work. I have to clean mine every 50 roasts cycle or so. Mine is a small one i use on my 2kg roaster but the same company (CTE) offer a bigger unit for 15+kg roaster. There is also Giesen who offer one for roaster up to 25kg.

CTE: Coffee-Tech Engineering - Advanced Roasting Systems
Giesen: Electrostatic Filters - Giesen Coffee Roasters

 

[Bradleysteenkamp]

Thanks for the information.

Yes roasting early morning would definitely help but unfortunately (in a good way!) we roast 4 days per week for 5 hours so it would be really draining to have to do all of that between 3am and 8am. But it would sold the problem!

 

[Franciskoh]

Hi, I am using combination of electrostaic filter and water scrubber tank for my 15kg Roaster and its working fine.