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Cocoa powders are used for their characteristic taste and color in chocolate drinks. Finely ground cocoa is usually mixed with other ingredients to produce powdered instant drinks. Handling cocoa powder can be tricky due to its nature and fineness. Gericke has extensive expertise in pneumatic cocoa transport techniques used to feed mixing lines for beverage production. Cocoa powder must be processed at temperatures below 30°C and under very dry conditions. In fact, it is a hygroscopic product which absorbs humidity and forms agglomerates, which affects its taste and makes it delicate to handle. It is therefore important to have a sealed processing system that protects the product from possible contamination and interaction with the external environment. Gericke offers two systems for pneumatically conveying powders. In a dilute phase pneumatic conveying system, the product is fed into the piping through a rotary valve. The transport gas is generally generated by a booster operating at a pressure less than 1 bar. This technology is characterized by high air speeds, generally above 23 m/s, and a low concentration of powders in the gas flow. Conveying hygroscopic powders containing fat (cocoa powder typically has a proportion of 10-20%) at high speeds can result in the formation of a layer of product in the piping, which is not desirable for hygiene issues and above all can lead to blockage of the pipes. With the PulseFlow PTA dense phase pneumatic conveying system supplied by Gericke, cocoa powder is transported in the form of slowly moving product caps. The system consists of a pressure vessel called a shipping airlock, supplied with compressed air by a compressor at a minimum pressure of 4.5 bar. This high available air pressure will make it possible to load cocoa caps into the pipes which will be able to move at low speeds in the pipes (less than 10 m/s) thus reducing the risk of riprap on the line.