Date of Graduation

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Osborn, G. Scott

Committee Member/Reader

Liang, Yi

Committee Member/Second Reader

Costello, Thomas A.

Abstract

The Carbo Rock-It™ is an invention created to carbonate beverages at craft breweries. One of the Carbo Rock-It’s main features is that it does not add a significant volume of undissolved gas bubbles to the brite tank in which the beverage is carbonated. This may allow temperature and pressure readings from the brite tank to be used to determine the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide in the beverage continuously in real time. This eliminates the need for manual samplings, which could save breweries time and allow for more controlled, accurate carbonation. The goal of this project was to develop an equation that correlates the brite tank temperature and pressure to volumes of dissolved carbon dioxide so that the Carbo Rock-It can be completely automated. This will eliminate the need for trained workers to continually monitor the carbonation process. Data for beverage temperature, gas pressure from the brite tank, and beverage temperature, gas pressure, and volumes of dissolved carbon dioxide from a Zahm and Nagel meter were collected at thirteen separate trials carbonating a spiked seltzer beverage, Scarlet Letter, from May 2021- July 2021 at Core Brewing in Springdale, AR. The temperature and pressure readings from the brite tank were entered into an equation based on Henry’s Law that predicted dissolved volumes of carbon dioxide and compared to measured values for dissolved carbon dioxide from the Zahm and Nagel meter at similar times. These values were linearly regressed and the regression equation was used to calibrate the prediction equations to match the measured data. The overall calibrated predicted values were accurate to ±0.164 vol/vol, which was 5.46% of the full scale volumes reading of 3.0 vol/vol. For the individual trials, the minimum error was ±0.0385 vol/vol, or 1.283% of the full scale, and the maximum error was ±0.2282 vol/vol, or 9.606% of the full scale.

Keywords

carbonation; brewing; Henry's Law; Scarlet Letter; craft

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