Chemical Plant Design Production of Essential Oil from Robusta Coffee Beans with A Capacity of 200 Metric Tons/Year

Abstract

This study aims to develop a preliminary design of a Robusta coffee bean essential oil plant with a production capacity of 200 tons/year in Turen Subdistrict, Malang Regency. The design considers raw material availability, site selection, solid–liquid extraction process, purification, material flow diagram, mass balance, and heat balance analysis. The extraction process was conducted at 70–80°C for 2 hours, followed by purification using distillation and n-hexane washing. The mass balance analysis showed a steady-state condition with total input and output streams of 19,661.42 kg/h, supported by effective solvent recovery and an essential oil production rate of 33.67 kg/h. Heat balance analysis indicated that the extractor contributed the highest energy requirement of 524,779 kJ/h (44%), followed by the distillation column (35%) and rotary dryer (21%). The results suggest that heat integration and thermal insulation strategies are necessary to improve energy efficiency and reduce steam consumption. Keywords: essential oil; Robusta coffee beans; solid–liquid extraction; plant pre-design