Swiss technology group Bühler has developed Lucent, a new industrial cocoa nib roaster designed to address rising operational costs, throughput demands, and food safety standards. Manufactured in Appenzell, Switzerland, the machinery combines integrated heat recovery, predictive roasting controls, and a fully sealed product chamber to optimize performance.
Lucent is now available to industrial cocoa manufacturers globally, offering a direct response to volatile raw material prices, tightening margins, and fluctuating utility expenses.
Energy Recovery and Hybrid Processing Options
In industrial cocoa processing, energy accounts for 10% to 20% of total operating expenses, with roasting representing the most energy-intensive stage of production. Bühler's previous generation roaster, the Tornado, operates as a batch process in which hot air roasts the cocoa in a rotating drum before the exhaust air is vented.
To prevent this thermal loss, Lucent utilises a heat exchange system that recovers energy from return air, reducing the load on the gas burner. Combined with a redesigned drum geometry and optimised fill levels, the system delivers the following operational efficiencies:
⚡ Energy Reduction: Uses at least 20% less energy per tonne of cocoa compared to the Tornado model.
📈 Throughput Improvement: Delivers up to 20% higher throughput while maintaining the same physical footprint.
🍃 Hybrid Roasting Option: A secondary configuration combining convective and conductive heat transfer is available, achieving up to 40% energy savings in specific applications.
According to Isabelle Kirckof, Product Manager Market Segment Cocoa & Malt at Bühler, roasting is a critical stage for flavour creation but has historically been the step where the most energy is wasted. Kirckof noted that the new platform is engineered to enhance flavour control whilst simultaneously reducing energy consumption.
Hygienic Design and Structural Food Safety
To comply with increasingly stringent international food safety regulations, Lucent features a fully enclosed roasting chamber and a specialized sealing system. This architecture physically isolates the cocoa product from the combustion air throughout the entire roasting cycle.
The structural design incorporates several engineering updates to improve hygiene and reduce maintenance downtime:
🧼 Sanitary Construction: Built entirely from stainless steel with an easy-clean surface finish.
🛠️ Component Access: Equipped with dedicated service openings that provide maintenance teams with direct physical access to key internal components.
🌾 Yield Preservation: The sealed airflow design prevents product from being drawn into the exhaust airstream, minimizing the yield losses associated with older roasting systems.
Joachim Essig, Head of Sales Cocoa & Malt at Bühler, stated that tightening food safety standards require manufacturers to utilise equipment that meets those guidelines structurally, rather than relying on procedural workarounds.
Predictive Control Systems and Operation
To reduce dependency on highly experienced specialist operators, Lucent incorporates a self-learning control system. The built-in algorithm continuously monitors key processing parameters and automatically adjusts the gas burner temperature, airflow, and process speed in real time.
Once an operator inputs a specific roasting profile, the automated system manages execution. Roasting cycles typically run between 40 and 60 minutes depending on the characteristics of the raw material. The self-learning controls automatically adapt to batch-to-batch variations in the incoming raw cocoa to secure a consistent finished product.
Manufacturing and Future Deployments
The development of Lucent was guided directly by industrial feedback from Bühler’s customer base, prioritising energy efficiency, structural hygiene, throughput capacity, and operational simplicity.
A prototype is currently in development and is scheduled to be installed at a customer facility in Asia during the first quarter of 2027. Bühler plans to expand the technology to roast other commodities over the next two years.
Lucent is manufactured entirely at Bühler's facility in Appenzell, Switzerland, which serves as the company's centre of excellence for cocoa processing equipment. Since 2022, all key components for the company's cocoa processing lines—from infrared pre-treatment machinery to roasters and coolers—have been consolidated at the Appenzell site.
