If you enjoy a good cup of coffee, you may have CO2 to thank for it.
Coffee beans are typically roasted in hot air. One of the most critical aspects of roasting is that the air temperature needs to be high enough to cause the green beans to change color, taste and smell, but not to burn them.
To accomplish this, some coffee roasters add CO2 to the hot air to control the intensity of the heat verses the moisture content to prevent the coffee from being “singed.” This would result in a burnt taste when the coffee is brewed.
The other way CO2 is used is to naturally decaffeinate coffee. Many of the traditional processes used to extract caffeine from coffee requires first rinsing the beans in chemical solvents, then rinsing repeatedly in steam or hot water to remove any trace of the chemicals.
To avoid these chemicals, manufacturers can steam the green coffee beans in a pressure chamber filled with carbon dioxide. The pressurized CO2 containing dissolved caffeine is later removed, the caffeine is scrubbed from the CO2, and the CO2 is recycled to clean another batch of coffee beans.
For both decaffeination and roasting, clients use our 100% CO2 Sampling data logger. It has a built-in gas sampling pump, internal memory for data logging, a relay and outputs for CO2 level control.