Multi-Step Coffee Brewing for Lower Diterpene Extraction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Automated coffee machines struggle to brew coffee while limiting the extraction of diterpene compounds like kahweol and cafestol, which can raise cholesterol levels, while maintaining taste characteristics.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus and method involve brewing coffee in multiple stages with reduced water flow rates, allowing each stage to contact a fraction of the coffee mass for an extended brewing time, maintaining taste parameters and reducing diterpene extraction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-generated harmful factors
If water flow rate is reduced to limit diterpene extraction, then diterpene content decreases, but brewing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The brewing process is divided into multiple sequential brewing steps, where the total water volume is distributed across several passes through the coffee bed. Each pass uses a fraction of the total water volume, allowing the system to maintain lower instantaneous flow rates while completing the full extraction process in multiple stages rather than a single prolonged step.
Solution Approach 2:
The brewing process employs periodic action by repeatedly passing water through the coffee bed in discrete steps with intervals between passes. The controller manages sequential brewing steps where water is supplied in periodic cycles, allowing extraction to occur in pulses rather than continuous flow, which helps limit diterpene extraction while managing overall brewing time.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If water flow rate is reduced to limit diterpene extraction, then diterpene content decreases, but productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The brewing process is divided into multiple sequential brewing steps, where the total water volume is distributed across several passes through the coffee bed. Each pass uses a fraction of the total water volume, allowing the system to maintain lower instantaneous flow rates while completing the full extraction process in multiple stages rather than a single prolonged step.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous useful action by automatically sequencing multiple brewing steps without manual intervention. The controller manages the continuous process of dispensing water fractions and collecting coffee portions, ensuring that the useful extraction action continues uninterrupted across all brewing steps, thereby maintaining productivity despite the reduced flow rate per step.
3Ease of operation
If multiple brewing steps are used to reduce diterpene extraction, then device complexity increases, but if automated control is implemented, ease of operation improves
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs self-service automation where the controller automatically manages the entire multi-step brewing process without user intervention. The controller autonomously sequences the brewing steps, controls water fraction dispensing, manages coffee bed preparation, and coordinates the timing of each step, allowing the complex multi-step process to operate as if it were a simple single-step process from the user's perspective.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system incorporates feedback mechanisms to monitor and adjust the brewing process parameters. The controller receives feedback on water flow rates, brewing step completion status, and coffee preparation state, using this information to automatically adjust subsequent steps to maintain optimal extraction conditions while limiting diterpene content, thereby managing device complexity through intelligent control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach results in a coffee beverage with lower diterpene content and preserved taste characteristics, achievable without modifying existing coffee maker designs, and can be implemented in both single or multiple brewing chamber setups.
Implementation Method 1
passing heated water through a bed of ground coffee beans in order to brew the coffee
Implementation Method 2
a number of different compounds are extracted from the coffee beans
Implementation Method 3
During the extraction process caffeine may be extracted from the coffee beans
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is an apparatus for preparing a coffee beverage portion from a volume of water and a mass of coffee beans. The apparatus includes a brewing chamber for containing the ground coffee. The chamber admits water via an inlet. The water contacts the ground coffee contained within the chamber, and exits the chamber via an outlet. A ground coffee supplier dispenses coffee beans to the chamber, and a water supply supplies water to the chamber. A controller controls the ground coffee supplier and the water supply such that the coffee beverage portion is brewed in a plurality of brewing steps. Each brewing step includes passing a fraction of the water volume through the chamber so as to contact a further fraction of the coffee beans mass during a time period equal to the desired brewing time. Further provided is a method of preparing a coffee beverage portion.