Coffee beans have caffeine naturally in them. How is the caffeine removed from them to create decaffeinated coffee?
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Green beans are steamed to open pores. Then the beans are soaked in a solvent. The solvent can be Ethyl Acetate, Methyl Chloride, supercritical CO2 or water. This solvent is pre-loaded with all disolvable coffee components, the caffeine migrates from the bean to the solvent. Then the caffeine is removed from the solvent and the solvent is reused to remove more caffeine from beans. The caffeine gets removed from the solvent by phase change (solvent evaporates and caffeine crystalizes), or is being absorbed in activated carbon.
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