U2SCoffee - Caffeine Capsules

Co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), under the COMPETE 2020 Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization of Portugal 2020.

Total eligible cost | € 773.151,50
EU financial support | € 524.635,71
Self-financing | € 248.515,79

Period of execution | 20-03-2018 to 30-09-2021

Location | Portugal

Consortium

BICAFÉ - Torrefacção e Comércio de Café, Lda. (Lead Promoter)

Universidade do Porto (Promoter)

ICETA - Instituto de Ciências, Tecnologias e Agroambiente da Universidade do Porto (Promoter)

INEGI - Instituto de Ciência e Inovação em Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia Industrial (Promoter)

CVR - Centro para a Valorização de Resíduos (Promoter)

Synthesis

Description
The sustainability of processes and the valorization of agro-food by-products are currently a priority for national and European entities.
Silver skin is the main by-product of the coffee roasting industry. In turn, recent studies demonstrate the potential of silver skin as a source of bioactive compounds with a beneficial effect on health, including caffeine.
This project intends to develop new products, in controlled doses of caffeine, for the preparation of espresso coffee enriched in caffeine, and other bioactive compounds (antioxidants, minerals, amino acids) to meet specific market needs. The products to be developed are intended to be a healthy alternative to energy drinks available in the market.
In this sense, the new product will be achieved through an extraction process to obtain these compounds of natural origin, reusing and valorizing a residue, thus integrating the principles of circular economy. The process to be developed aims to obtain, in an efficient, fast and environmentally clean, extracts of silver skin, using ultrasound technology using only water as extracting element (contrary to conventional methods that use organic solvents).

Goals
- Development of a capsule to obtain a drink similar to espresso with an innovative perspective of the increased caffeine content (at a strict and safe level), using only products derived solely from the coffee seed;
- Utilization and recovery of the residue obtained during the roasting of the coffee reducing the quantities discarded to the environment.