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3.1.1 History

It was not until the year 1828 that a method was introduced for the separation of cocoa liquor into cocoa butter and cocoa cake. In that year the Dutchman Coenraad van Houten invented a process that enabled him to press a large part of the fat, or cocoa butter, from the semi-liquid cocoa liquor, for which he was granted a patent by King William I of the Netherlands.

Van Houten’s invention, a vertical press, was certainly an improvement, but cocoa butter pressing remained a highly labour-intensive process. Each press pot, i.e. the cylindrical chamber in which the liquor is pressed into cake, had to be filled manually using buckets, while after pressing the pots had to be loosened and removed from the press for emptying, also by hand.

With the invention of the horizontal press in 1932 by the American J.C. Carver, the vertical press gradually fell into disuse. The horizontal press was a major improvement on the vertical system as the cakes were released automatically onto a conveyor belt for transportation to the next production stage.

The cocoa butter press has over the years developed into a highly advanced system, and with the advent of hydraulics, oil pressure could be increased to well over 500 bar. The diameter of the hydraulic ram was enlarged relative to that of the pots in order to achieve an even higher pressure on the liquor. The specific surface pressure on the liquor is to the pump generated oil pressure as the surface area of the hydraulic ram to the surface area of the pressing plate. The surface area of the ram is about twice the size of the pressing plate, which doubles the pressure on the liquor to about 1000 bar.

This higher specific pressure has resulted in a further decrease of the residual fat content in cocoa cake, as well as in pressing time. In Van Houten’s day the lowest possible fat content that could be achieved was 20%, while today a percentage of 9% is feasible.

Modern systems operate with increasingly greater forces, which requires materials of the highest standard, while automation has taken over manual operation and control more and more.

Well-known cocoa press manufacturers are: Duyvis (the Netherlands), Carle & Montanari ( Italy), Vitali, (Italy), Nagema/Heidenau (Germany) and Bauermeister (Germany).



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