Cocoa and coffee drying equipment fired on local residue
The process is well understood. The fuel is where the choice is.
Fermented cocoa dries at 50 to 60 °C to a final moisture of 7–8 %, over 20 to 30 hours. Coffee in parchment or cherry dries at 45 to 55 °C to 10–12 %, over 18 to 30. Both are low-temperature, long-cycle duties where evenness matters more than speed, and both can run on residue.
What each crop actually asks for
These are the working parameters the trade runs to, not a recipe validated for your beans. Confirm them against your own intake and your buyer’s specification before anything is sized.
| Crop | Form | Temperature | Final moisture | Yield | Cycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cocoa | Fermented bean | 50–60 °C | 7–8 % | 2.5 : 1 | 20–30 h |
| Coffee | Parchment or cherry | 45–55 °C | 10–12 % | 5 : 1 | 18–30 h |
Fuel: imported gas or local residue
This is the actual difference between one drying installation and another in West Africa, and it is decided before any of the process parameters matter. A dryer fired on LPG or diesel is exposed to an imported commodity priced in a currency the buyer does not earn in. A dryer fired on residue is exposed to a crop the buyer already handles.
Cocoa and coffee both arrive with their own residues. Cocoa pod husk is available in volume at the same time as the bean, and coffee husk likewise. Neither is as good a fuel as cashew shell, but both are free at the factory gate and both are otherwise a disposal problem.
Where cashew processing exists nearby — and in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria it usually does — empty cashew shell at 4,800 kcal/kg and 1–3 % ash is the better base load, with pod or coffee husk as supplement. The burner takes both without mechanical change; feed rate and cleaning interval shift between them.
How we compare with European specialist suppliers
Buyers looking for cocoa and coffee drying equipment often arrive having found a European specialist. TecAIRE — NEOCAFE ENGINEERING SL, of Spain — is the one most often searched alongside cocoa and coffee, and they are specialists in exactly this: coffee and cocoa roasting and drying installations, with European engineering and a record of completed projects behind them.
We are not a specialist in cocoa and coffee. We are a biomass firing company whose equipment dries cocoa and coffee among about forty other crops, and the honest comparison is a difference in kind rather than a ranking.
| A European specialist | What we are | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Coffee and cocoa specifically | Biomass heat across many crops |
| Fuel | Ask the supplier — it is the first question to put to any of us | Local crop residue, 3,200–5,100 kcal/kg |
| Installation and support | From Europe | From within the region |
| Drying installations completed | Ask them; they have a project history | None. We have built no drying line anywhere |
| Published specification | Ask them | On this site, including the exclusions and the efficiency chain |
Two things about that table are worth saying plainly. We make no claim about any other supplier’s pricing, performance, reliability or customers — go to their own site for that, and take what they publish over what a competitor says about them. And the fourth row is not a rhetorical device: we have one commissioned installation and it is a steam boiler, not a dryer. If a completed drying reference is what decides your purchase, a supplier who has one is the right answer and we will say so.What we do bring is the fuel argument, support inside the region, and a specification published in enough detail to be checked — see tea, coffee and cocoa drying for the process side.
Where we install
The cocoa and coffee belt we are built around runs through Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Guinea, and we install across West and Central Africa as a matter of course. Orders are accepted from any country; outside the region the buyer covers the installation team’s travel, accommodation and entry formalities, and nothing else in the terms changes.
Country detail: cocoa processing in Côte d’Ivoire and cocoa processing in Cameroon. For the roasting stage rather than the drying stage, see spice and grain roasting — roasting is a different thermal profile and this platform covers only its lighter end.
Specifications
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Burner range | 200,000–900,000 kcal/h |
| Delivered air temperature | 50–150 °C, held to a process setpoint |
| Cocoa duty | 50–60 °C to 7–8 % moisture, 20–30 h |
| Coffee duty | 45–55 °C to 10–12 % moisture, 18–30 h |
| Heat transfer | Indirect — combustion products never reach the bean |
| Fuel envelope | Cashew shell, cocoa pod husk, coffee husk, crop residue |
| Warranty | 12 months from date of shipment |
| Manufacturing lead time | 10–18 weeks from confirmed order and receipt of advance payment |
Where this equipment is used
The same equipment is specified across several product classes. These are the ones it is configured for most often:
tea, coffee and cocoa drying, tropical fruit drying and fruit and vegetable drying.
Each of those pages carries the drying parameters, cycle times and quality targets for that product class.
Frequently asked questions
Can cocoa be dried without losing flavour?
Yes, and the risk is unevenness rather than heat. Held at 50 to 60 °C with even airflow, a mechanical dryer is more consistent than sun drying and far less exposed to rain. What creates off-flavours is a hot spot or a stalled batch, which is why airflow uniformity matters more here than the temperature setpoint.
Is cocoa pod husk a usable fuel?
Usable rather than good. It arrives free and in volume at the same time as the bean, which is its whole argument, but it carries more ash and more moisture than shell. The practical arrangement is a cleaner base load — cashew shell at 4,800 kcal/kg and 1–3 % ash — with husk as supplement.
Do you dry coffee, or roast it?
Dry. Coffee drying runs 45 to 55 °C to 10–12 % moisture over 18 to 30 hours, and sits comfortably inside the platform. Roasting is a different thermal profile: light aroma roasting at 120–150 °C is inside the range, but darker roasts run above it and want equipment built for that duty.
Why compare yourselves with a specialist supplier at all?
Because buyers compare us anyway, and a page that pretends otherwise wastes their time. The comparison is a difference in kind: they are coffee and cocoa specialists with completed projects, we are a biomass firing company with none in drying. On 66 impressions a month for that search, saying so is more useful than not.
Discuss a cocoa or coffee installation
Tell us your daily wet tonnage, your target moisture and what residue you have on site, and we will size the heat stage against it.
Request a proposal