Decaffeinate Coffee: How it Works

If you can’t tolerate certain components of coffee or want to avoid the usual “caffeine rush,” decaffeinated coffee may be for you. In this article, we will explain methods how decaffeinating coffee.

Decaffeinated coffee by a chemical process

While benzene was previously used for this process, other substances are now used because benzene is carcinogenic.

• To do this, the raw coffee beans are placed in a chemical bath containing the extraction agents dichloromethane and ethyl acetate.
• The extractants separate most of the caffeine from the beans.
• The beans are washed and dried before they can be further processed.
• No process can remove all of the caffeine from the coffee beans. There is always a maximum share of 0.1%.

Decaffeination with the carbon dioxide process

The carbon dioxide process has the advantage that no chemicals are used during the process.

• Only water is heated and added to the coffee beans so that they can soak.
• CO2 then acts under high pressure on the soaked beans.
• The caffeine is absorbed by the carbon dioxide and carried out. It can then be recovered from there.
• The recovered caffeine is often further processed for medicine. It often flows into caffeine pills.