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US 4,411,923 AGranted
Process for the extraction of caffeine from super-critical solutions
AssigneeHAG Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsPeter Hubert, Otto Vitzthum
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Abstract
A process for extracting caffeine from raw coffee, roast coffee, tea and the like. Super-critical carbon dioxide is used as extracting agent, and ion-exchangers are used to absorb the caffeine, and are subsequently regenerated by use of aqueous regenerating agents.
Claims7
Process for extracting caffeine from caffeine-containing natural substances using super-critical carbon dioxide as extracting agent wherein caffeine and non-caffeine substances are removed from said natural substances by the extracting agent, including the steps of
- (a) selectively removing caffeine from the extracting agent with a polystyrene-based cation exchanger with sulfonic acid groups at a pressure between 100 to 300 bars;
- (b) adding from 5% to 30% water based on the total weight of the cation exchange resin to moisten the caffeine-filled resin and thereby avoid explosion of the resin particles during and after release of the CO.sub.2 gas;
- and
- (c) regenerating said cation exchange resin by use of aqueous regenerating agents.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.