Introduction and Market Background

Instant coffee products are generally available in two different forms: Spray dried and freeze dried. The freeze dried coffee is generally recognized as being of higher quality as there is less flavor loss and the specific “burned” taste is averted. Additionally the freeze dried coffee can be tailored to produce a “crema like” structure, bringing it very close to a freshly made espresso.

In ongoing product diversification, namely in speciality coffee, premium instant coffee, and single-serve coffee markets, manufacturers are increasingly focused not only on coffee extraction quality but also on particle structure, appearance, consistency, production efficiency, and not least total manufacturing costs. Raising energy prices have a large impact on total production costs.

The good news is, that the manufacturing costs are highly depending on the process used. Not only aspects of CAPEX, but especially OPEX have to be taken into consideration when choosing a production process for instant coffee.

Processes that offer better control over particle size and quality, offer dramatic cost savings potential. As the quality of spray dried coffee is very much lower than freeze dried coffee, while not offering always an OPEX saving possibility, at similar CAPEX, it is omitted in the further. Instead, older and widespread “cryo crushing” processes are compared to dripping processes. Here namely the BRACE Microsphere process is taken into consideration, as it offers at low operating costs and low capital expenditure a very high quality, far superior to the classical cryo crushing. Additionally, the resulting Microspheres can be tailored in a wide range to the customer needs.

Management Process Comparison

One widespread process for making instant coffee is called “cryo crushing”. It is a rather old process making use of freezer tunnels, where liquid coffee concentrate is frozen in trays and then crushed to coarse particles. Those particles are screened with a broad sieving range, while fines and overgrain are returned to thaw and refreeze in the process. The sieved crush particles are then distributed on trays and then freeze dried in batches.

On the other hand, the innovative BRACE Microsphere Technology follows a principle of "form freeze – continuous dry". A high solid content coffee concentrate it reformed into totally spherical Microspheres with identical size. Each of those droplets is shock frosted and then can be continuously transported and dried.

A direct comparison of the processes shows, that the innovative BRACE process not only needs less space and substantially less energy, it is also fully automatable. Even fully continuous freeze driers (and not quasi-continuous as found in other large scale driers on the market) can be used. The controlled particle shape and size allow to reduce drying time largely, with stable, dust free and continuous processing from coffee concentrating to packing.

Deep Dive: Process Analysis

Cryo Crushing

Coffee Brewing → Coffee Concentrating → Foaming → Pre-freezing → Block freezing → Mechanical crushing → Screening → Freeze drying → Packing.

Here it is important to understand, that about 40% of the material is removed in screening and returned to the concentrate. This also means, that both, the energy of the thawing (heat) and the energy of the freezing is to be considered twice.

On top of that, the whole system is placed into a freezer room, which uses up additional energy.

BRACE Microsphere Process

Coffee Brewing → Coffee Concentrating → Foaming → Precision droplet generation → Cryogenic freezing → Freeze drying → Packing.

The offerings of this process are that the process path is dramatically shortened. This leads to less loss of flavor, faster drying, strong particles and dust free packing. Also the units are run completely closed, so that it is not necessary to place them completely in a freezer chamber, but only the exit of the cooling tower to the inlet of the freeze dryer – a very small chamber indeed!

Footprint

While the cryo crush needs typically huge footprints for both, the (pre-)freezing, crushing and screening phase, the BRACE Microsphere process needs only a small area. In a typical production building height, easily multiple units can be installed, where only one cryo crusher system would be possible.

Due to the faster drying, and the possibility of using higher concentrated coffee, the freeze dryers can be smaller, or even a fully continuous compact one. In areas where real estate is expensive, this is a huge advantage.

Cooling System and Freezing Mechanism

Cryo crushing uses for the (pre-)freezing stages traditional refrigeration, with little contact in larger volumes. This process is slow and not very efficient, first of all, freezing emits energy, and secondly the ice insulates the inner part of the freezing tray. Therefore heat transfer is slower and freezing conditions may vary throughout the material, leading to separation, flavor loss, inhomogenous material, uneven porosity, etc.

In the Microsphere process, the droplet generated is only about 1-2 mm typically in diameter (in normal processing droplet diameters of 300 – 6000 µm are most efficient). This droplet is solidified during a short distance of free fall in a cold tower. Usually this is filled with nitrogen gas to avoid oxidization or off flavor tones of the coffee.

As cooling media BRACE uses evaporated liquid nitrogen, leading to most efficient energy use and maintain process temperature of -100°C or below. The flash freezing of the Microspheres yield fully homogenous spheres, with no flavor loss during the freezing period. As an additional benefit, the pre-freezing stage can be fully omitted, as the Microspheres exit the unit at the temperature inside the freeze dryer. This means, that there is no precooling period, but the freeze dryer can be fast recharged.

Particle Structure and Quality Control

While the BRACE Microsphere process produces very homogenous spherical Microspheres, the cryo crushing produces a wide variety of particles. Due to the sharp edges and malformed particles, it easily breaks during packing, transport and storage, leading to significant (and unwanted) dust. As such dust looses flavor more quickly, the coffee will soon taste bland after opening.

In contrary the BRACE Microspheres: perfectly round Microspheres roll and don’t destroy each other. They do not generate dust (dust free), they keep the precious flavor over a long time. On top of that, the Microspheres can be tailored by the freeze drying process parameters for different colors and hardness.

BRACE Microsphere Coffee

Consumer preference

Both processes, the cryo crushing and the BRACE Microsphere process, produce particles of freeze dried Instant Coffee. The crushed ones are well known to the market and customers, and the customer knows the behavior of the product.

Despite the draw backs of inhomogenous dissolution, staling and unpleasant appearance, customers prefer freeze dried coffee over spray dried coffee that offers even less joy for the coffee drinker.

However, unrepresentative studies have shown, that many consumers would prefer fast, residue free dissolving spherical coffee, that offers even after longer periods of open container a good natural taste.

Cost and ROI Comparison

The energy consumption of the cryo crush and BRACE Microsphere processes can easily be compared and the costs can be calculated on typical electricity costs.

While both processes do not have any differences in the steps of brewing, concentration and foaming, the following steps show large differences.

For the cryo crushing the energy is calculated as

Pre-Freezing + Freezing + Crushing + Sieving + (Melting + Prefreezing + Freezing) of fines and overgrain + Freeze drying

It has to be kept in mind, that the fines and overgrain form about 40% of the particles to be returned. So they need the same energy for melting and (pre-)freezing. This comes to 80% of the energy for the process (plus 100% of the correct size as the full quantity has to be frozen before screening) in total including all recurring sieving losses ca. 200% of the theoretically needed energy. Losses in the process will increase this value.

The BRACE Microsphere process uses the coffee concentrate and generates directly frozen particles. That means the energy consumption is

Drip Casting + Freezing + Freeze Drying.

The freezing of course only needs 100% of the theoretical value, having no losses, while the drip casting itself uses so little energy, it can be neglected.

A close look at the Freeze Drying times shows, that with cryo crushing typical freeze drying takes up to 30 hours. With the BRACE Microspheres, the freeze drying is typically operated between 12 and 18 hours. This is all in all a significant reduction in drying time.

As the major energy consumption in freeze drying is the operation of the vacuum pumps, the energy costs are massively lower with the BRACE Microsphere process. Direct cost savings of 30-50% are not unheard of.

The simple comparison of the number and size of equipments of both processes, it is even for the lay man obvious, that the cryo crushing is substantially more expensive than the BRACE Microspheres process. The space consumption is significant lower, reducing building and installation costs even further.

But not only there is a difference in the direct process capital investments. As the freeze drying time can be reduced dramatically, less freeze dryers can be installed. With 30-50% less freeze dryers, a large amount of the investment is suddenly unnecessary. Or, if those freeze dryers are already existing, production capacity can be increased by 30-50% without further investment.

Example Calculation and Cost Savings based on Average Equipment and Energy Costs (2026)

Conclusion

In conclusion it is obvious, that the BRACE Microsphere process is superior to the cryo crushing in all aspects. With operating cost savings of multiple EUR per kg (!) even the upgrade of an existing installation by removing the Cryo Crushing system and installation of the BRACE Microsphere unit pays itself in a short financial period.

It cannot be more obvious, that the perfectly round, fully process controllable Microspheres, with their perfect appearance, easy to use, fast dissolving properties, show major increases in profit and efficiency of any existing or newly planned instant coffee system. The cost savings will bring the unit for free as it pays for itself in a very short period of time.