I am a bit stressed with all the piled up work and random events in my life at the moment, so a bit of relief would be good for me at the moment. After the sous vide set up, probably I will make another few more prototype, food relate, to relieve my stress. COFFEE, cold brew coffee to be exact.
I hope the schematic for this prototype can explain itself.
Basically, I am looking at a method to exact coffee at low temperature and shorter time than traditional cold-brew method.
- Under pressurization, water will penetrate inside coffee power, and grab hold of the content of coffee powder (caffeine, flavornoids,...)
- Under low pressure (vacuuming), water with flavornoids will be extract out of coffee powders
- Continuously get this cycling of pressure and low pressure will extract out most of hydrophilic content ( and some hydrophobic as well - coffee oil mostly), thus, creating a new flavor out of the coffee.
Diaphragm pump is used because it can create both good vacuum and pressurization - all we need is to use a motor controller to make it goes in both direction, thus the cycling can work itself out.
As for now, I do not know how long it takes (how many cycles to get the coffee), so I am leaning to have some user interface (push buttons, 1602 screen) to control the cycling process without re-programming this every times. However, this might be a big challenge by itself creating user interface in 1602 screen. Maybe 1604 screen can be easier.
A further down the road plan is to use ultrasonic generator to make coffee. Same as this vacuum set up, micro-bubble form and burst in ultrasonic bath will extract everything out off coffee powder in no time. But acquire a ultrasonic bath might be troublesome : I don't have any other use for it anymore.
Or, I can give it to prof Tong, if he is still interested in algae tech for microalgae oil extraction - it could be a new extraction method for oil, who knows?
Basically, I am looking at a method to exact coffee at low temperature and shorter time than traditional cold-brew method.
- Under pressurization, water will penetrate inside coffee power, and grab hold of the content of coffee powder (caffeine, flavornoids,...)
- Under low pressure (vacuuming), water with flavornoids will be extract out of coffee powders
- Continuously get this cycling of pressure and low pressure will extract out most of hydrophilic content ( and some hydrophobic as well - coffee oil mostly), thus, creating a new flavor out of the coffee.
Diaphragm pump is used because it can create both good vacuum and pressurization - all we need is to use a motor controller to make it goes in both direction, thus the cycling can work itself out.
As for now, I do not know how long it takes (how many cycles to get the coffee), so I am leaning to have some user interface (push buttons, 1602 screen) to control the cycling process without re-programming this every times. However, this might be a big challenge by itself creating user interface in 1602 screen. Maybe 1604 screen can be easier.
A further down the road plan is to use ultrasonic generator to make coffee. Same as this vacuum set up, micro-bubble form and burst in ultrasonic bath will extract everything out off coffee powder in no time. But acquire a ultrasonic bath might be troublesome : I don't have any other use for it anymore.
Or, I can give it to prof Tong, if he is still interested in algae tech for microalgae oil extraction - it could be a new extraction method for oil, who knows?