“Unveiling the Secrets: How Your Favorite Drinks Lose Their Kick Without Losing Flavor!”
The fourth common method used to decaffeinate coffee – and tea, by the way – is perhaps the most exotic: the supercritical carbon dioxide method. As we all learned in elementary school, matter can exist in three basic forms: solid, liquid, and gas (and yes, I hear all you pedants screaming: also plasma – but that is outside the scope of this discussion). Which of these states a particular substance exists in depends on two factors: pressure and temperature. For example, at low temperatures and pressures, Carbon Dioxide is a gas. At low temperatures and high pressures it is a liquid, while at even lower temperatures and higher pressures it is a solid – what we typically call dry ice. However, above 304.128 Kelvin and 7.3773 Megapascals – what is known as the critical point – Carbon Dioxide undergoes a strange transformation, attaining a state halfway between a liquid and a gas. This phase, known as supercritical carbon dioxide, is an excellent and versatile solvent, and widely used in industry for countless tasks including dry cleaning clothing, extracting essential oils and other plant compounds, cleaning pesticides from grain and other crops – and extracting caffeine from coffee beans and tea. Compared to regular organic solvents, supercritical carbon dioxide does less damage to extracted compounds, evaporates completely when its pressure is increased, and leaves behind no toxic residues. And while it is more expensive than other methods, it can more quickly process large volumes of coffee beans. Furthermore, it more efficiently extracts pure caffeine as a byproduct, which can then be sold for inclusion in caffeine pills, cold medications, energy drinks, and other products – and for more on another state of matter that seemingly defies logic, please check out our previous video The Weirdest Substance Known to Science.
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