Recirculating Beverage Brewing Assembly for Higher Extraction Yield
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automatic machines for brewing beverages face challenges in optimizing brewing parameters such as water temperature, pressure, and contact time to achieve the optimal extraction yield, which affects the quality and efficiency of the brewing process, and are limited in producing both hot and cold beverages efficiently.
Innovation Solution
The automatic machine incorporates a recirculation or inversion system that allows the brewed beverage to be reused as extraction fluid, increasing contact time with the brewing material, and includes a pump and electronic control unit to manage the brewing process, enabling real-time control of extraction yield and production of both hot and cold beverages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional single-pass brewing is used, then the brewing process is simple and fast, but the extraction yield is insufficient and beverage quality is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a recirculation system where the brewed beverage is continuously pumped back through the brewing chamber multiple times, maintaining continuous extraction action. This allows the extraction process to continue beyond the initial single pass, progressively improving extraction yield without requiring a completely separate brewing cycle.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a recirculation pump as an intermediary device that mediates between the brewing chamber and the beverage output. This pump actively transports the brewed beverage back through the brewing chamber, enabling multiple extraction passes without manual intervention and resolving the contradiction between automated simplicity and extraction effectiveness.
2Speed
If high water temperature is used for brewing, then extraction speed is increased, but energy consumption increases and risk of over-extraction or burnt flavor increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs periodic recirculation cycles where water is heated to brewing temperature, circulated through the brewing chamber multiple times, then allowed to cool slightly between passes. This periodic heating and cooling pattern maintains high extraction speed during active brewing while reducing overall energy consumption compared to continuous high-temperature maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
By maintaining continuous circulation of water through the brewing chamber at moderate temperatures, the system achieves effective extraction without requiring repeated high-temperature heating cycles. The continuous motion of water through the coffee bed ensures sustained extraction activity at lower energy input.
3Manufacturing precision
If contact time between water and brewing material is increased, then extraction yield improves, but brewing time increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The recirculation pump acts as an intermediary that enables extended contact time without proportionally extending total brewing time. By actively circulating water through the brewing chamber multiple times in sequence, the system achieves cumulative extraction equivalent to much longer static contact time, thereby maintaining productivity while improving extraction yield.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the static brewing process into a dynamic recirculating system where water flow conditions change continuously through multiple passes. This dynamic approach allows optimization of contact time during each pass while maintaining overall brewing efficiency, as the system can adjust flow rates and circulation speeds to balance extraction quality with brewing speed.
4Manufacturing precision
If material dose is increased to improve extraction yield, then beverage quality improves, but machine efficiency decreases due to longer brewing time and higher energy consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The recirculation system allows the same material dose to be extracted more thoroughly through multiple continuous passes of water. This eliminates the need to increase material dose to achieve higher extraction yield, as the extended circulation time enables complete extraction from the existing coffee bed, thereby maintaining machine efficiency while improving beverage quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the brewing parameters from static single-pass conditions to dynamic multi-pass recirculation conditions. By adjusting the circulation rate and number of passes rather than increasing material dose, the system achieves higher extraction yield with the same amount of coffee, preserving machine efficiency and productivity.
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 enhances energy efficiency, reduces material and energy consumption, improves beverage quality by progressive extraction at lower temperatures, and allows for real-time correction of under-extraction, making the machine more efficient and versatile in producing a wide range of beverages.
Implementation Method 1
providing a pump downstream of the brewing device and forcing the brewed beverage to flow, by means of the pump, in a reverse direction, i.e. from the outlet towards the inlet of the brewing device
Implementation Method 2
causing a hot liquid to flow, in a shorter or longer time, through a dose of anhydrous material, for example ground coffee or leaf tea, so that soluble substances, aroma and taste of the anhydrous material are extracted and released into the liquid
Data Source
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AI summary
Automatic beverage preparation machine (8) with a brewing assembly (1); brewing material supply device (2) to supply a brewing material dose to the brewing assembly (1) at the beginning of each beverage production cycle; water supply means to supply the brewing assembly (1) with a metered amount of water required to produce a beverage; a beverage-dispensing nozzle in fluid communication with a fluid outlet of the brewing assembly (1); and brewing process repeating means (9, 14) of the designed to reverse the beverage flow one or more times through the brewing material dose in the brewing assembly (1) before being dispensed into a collection receptacle (7).