Back to results
US 4,113,886 AGranted
Membrane decaffeination
AssigneeGeneral Foods Corporation
InventorSaul Norman Katz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aqueous vegetable extracts such as extracts of tea or green or roasted coffee are decaffeinated by permitting caffeine to diffuse through at least one porous, hydrophilic membrane and a water-immiscible solvent phase and into a water phase. The solvent may be either internal to a single membrane or positioned between two spaced-apart membranes.
Claims7
A method for decaffeinating an aqueous caffeine-containing solution comprising the steps of:
- (a) contacting one side of a porous, solvent-filled membrane with an aqueous, caffeine-containing solution, said solvent being a water-immiscible, caffeine-specific solvent comprising at least 70% by weight of the filled membrane,
- (b) contacting the opposite side of the membrane with a water phase,
- (c) maintaining the respective contacts for a sufficient period of time to reduce the caffeine concentration of the solution by permitting caffeine to pass through the filled membrane and into the water phase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.