
Decaffeination process
Project design

It is a preliminary process flow diagram (PFD) for the decaffeination process. Green coffee beans are used as the raw material for the production of decaffeinated coffee. The carbon dioxide is pumped in P-101 then it will be stored in (TK-201) then it will be heated in a heat exchanger (E-101) to supercritical condition; that been sent to the extraction vessel (T-101) in which decaffeinated coffee is formed where the desired decaffeinated coffee production rate is 1 metric ton per hour. A process begins with the extraction vessel (T-201) that charged with coffee beans. Then, the extraction is started by introducing the beans with supercritical CO2. The CO2 is passed through the bed of beans from 7-10 hours. After that, the caffeine has been extracted with recovery 97% from the beans. Next, the caffeine-rich CO2 exiting the extraction vessel is throttled (TV-201) at low pressure then to separate the CO2 from the caffeine by using liquid-gas separator (V-201). After that the CO2 is compressed in (C-201) and cooled by using heat exchanger (E-202) to be stored in CO2 storage tank.
