Alcohol Reduction In Beverages
AssigneeMemstar Pty Ltd
InventorDavid Wollan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of reducing the ethanol content of a beverage which includes ethanol and volatile component is disclosed. The method may include separating the beverage into first and second streams with the first stream including ethanol and the volatile components and the second stream including ethanol but none or little of the volatile components. The method may also include contacting the second stream with a strip solution to produce a treated second stream to reduce the ethanol concentration. The method may also include mixing the treated second stream with the first stream whereby the ethanol content of the beverage is reduced but the volatile components remain substantially unchanged.
Claims16
A method for reducing the alcohol content of a wine comprising:
- (i) processing the wine having a first alcohol concentration by reverse osmosis or nanofiltration to produce a retentate and a raw permeate, the retentate having a second alcohol concentration greater than or equal to the first alcohol concentration, and the raw permeate having a third alcohol concentration less than or equal to the first alcohol concentration;
- (ii) heating the raw permeate to a temperature greater than the temperature of the wine being processed;
- (iii) heating strip water to a temperature greater than the temperature of the wine being processed;
- (iv) after heating the raw permeate, contacting a first side of an hydrophobic microporous membrane with the heated raw permeate;
- (v) after heating the strip water, contacting a second side of the hydrophobic microporous membrane with the heated strip water, extracting alcohol from the raw permeate, and forming a partially dealcoholized permeate having a fourth alcohol concentration at the first side of the hydrophobic microporous membrane;
- and
- (vi) combining the retentate with the partially dealcoholized permeate and forming a partially dealcoholized wine having a fifth alcohol concentration less than the first alcohol concentration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.