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
Citation
Meyer, D. (2022). Development of an Equation to Correlate Brite Tank Temperature and Pressure to Beverage Carbonation Concentration. Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/baeguht/91
Included in
Biological Engineering Commons, Other Food Science Commons, Systems and Integrative Engineering Commons