Pretreated clay composition and process for selective removal of planar molecules from solutions

A process of decaffeination, comprising:

• forming a treated clay composition, the forming comprising:
• providing a solution comprising caffeine molecules and non-caffeine molecules;
• extracting the caffeine molecules from the solution to form a pretreatment solution comprising the non-caffeine molecules;
• and
• treating a clay with the pretreatment solution, wherein the treating causes adsorption of the non-caffeine molecules onto the clay;
• providing a caffeinated solution;
• and
• bringing the caffeinated solution into contact with the treated clay composition.

A treated clay composition, comprising:

• a clay comprising mineral layers;
• and
• organic molecules adsorbed on the mineral layers, wherein the organic molecules comprise non-caffeine molecules and are adsorbed in a process comprising:
• providing a first solution comprising caffeine molecules and the non-caffeine molecules;
• extracting the caffeine molecules from the first solution to form a pretreatment solution;
• and
• bringing the clay into contact with the pretreatment solution.