WO2016001672A1

WO2016001672A1 - Liquid alcohol headspace analysis with a fuel cell assembly

Info

Publication number: WO2016001672A1
Application number: PCT/GB2015/051932
Authority: WO
Inventors: James Gordon Campbell
Original assignee: James Gordon Campbell
Priority date: 2014-07-01
Filing date: 2015-07-01
Publication date: 2016-01-07
Also published as: GB201411726D0

Abstract

Apparatus for detecting alcohol in a liquid, said apparatus comprising a cover for a container: and a fuel cell associated with the cover such that in use the fuel cell is in contact with the interior of the liquid container, said fuel cell being configured to determine the electrical voltage in the fuel cell, said fuel cell being indicative of the type and/or amount of alcohol present.

Description

LIQUID ALCOHOL HEADSPACE ANALYSIS WITH A FUEL CELL ASSEMBLY

The present invention relates to apparatus for use in the detection of the aicoho! content of a iiquid such as a beverage, in addition the present invention relates to a method for detecting the alcohol content of a liquid such as a beverage.

An alcoholic beverage is a drink which contains typically about 3% to about 40% alcohol. Such beverages can generally be divided into four main classes. These are beers which are fermented from grain mash, ciders which are fermented from fruit juice, wine which is fermented from grape juice, and distilled beverages. Distilled beverages are those where the alcohol is concentrated by distillation. These distilled beverages, which have an alcohol content of at least 20% by volume, are generally referred to as spirits. However, most distilled beverages have an alcohol content around 40%.

The manufacture and sale of alcohol is controlled in most countries and most countries levy taxes on the sale of alcohol. These taxes increase the cost of the beverage to the consumer. Since there is a significant market for alcoholic beverages there is a substantial amount of low grade and/or illegal beverages produced. These may be sold through back- street vendors in cheap packaging. Alternatively, they may be packaged as well-known brands and sold to the public as genuine product. For ease of reference, both of these products will be referred to as "counterfeit" product.

This counterfeit product may simply be over-diluted such that it does not have the alcohol content which the purchaser is expected. Alternatively, the counterfeit beverage may be made from cheap materials and not have the taste of the genuine beverage.

More serious is if the manufacturer of the counterfeit product replaces the ethano! which should be present in alcoholic beverages with methanol. This replacement may be in place of some or all of the ethanol. The use of methanol is particularly dangerous since methanol is metabolized in the human body to formic acid which is poisonous to the centra! nervous system and may cause blindness, coma and possibly death.

Additionally or alternatively other contaminants may be present. in view of these problems, it is desirable that law enforcement officers are able to test alcoholic beverages to check whether the alcohol being supplied to the public has the required amount of alcohol present, i.e. it has not been watered-down, that it is ethanol and not methanol which is present in the sample and/or whether other contaminants are present.

However, testing the alcohol content requires samples to be sent to a laboratory for analysis.

This means that there is a delay between a suspect consignment being located and the results of the tests being available. Whilst this may, in some circumstances, only mean a delay in a consignment being released for consumption, more seriously, it may mean a delay in the law enforcement officers knowing that the material is counterfeit and starting to search for the perpetrators. ft is therefore desirable to provide a test which is easy to operate, does not require samples to be sent to a laboratory, and preferably provides the results to the operative within a short period of time.

In addition to the use by law enforcement officers detailed above, such a test would be useful to other users such as bar, nightclub, venue or restaurant operators and staff. In addition, it may be useful to medica! staff in an emergency situation to check the a!coho! content in a beverage bottle found with a patient. A suitable test may even be useful in offices and education establishments.

To date, much of the work associated with alcohol detection tests has concentrated on the so-called breathalyser apparatus which are used to test the breath of a person to give an indication of the amount of alcohol which has been consumed. However, this technology is directed to checking the level of alcohol already consumed.

Other arrangements are available. However, they generally are directed to detecting the presence of alcohol in beverages and do not quantify the type and/or amount of alcohol present or give an indication that the beverage may have been contaminated.

An alternative arrangement is described in WO2010/079329. Apparatus for detecting alcohol in the blood is described which comprises a chamber associated with a delivery path for a sample volume; conditioning means for the chamber to temperature condition the sample volume in a vapour equilization with air in a head space for the chamber; and a fuel ceil associated with the head space to sample the vapour equilizatson to determine the present electrical voltage in the fuei cell indicative of alcohol level in the vapour equilizatson relative to a temperature condition.

This arrangement enables the blood alcohol content to be calculated by reference to a calibration curve. This arrangement enables the rapid detection of blood alcohol to be detected.

Whilst this arrangement provides excellent results in checking for the alcohol content in blood, it is not generally suitable for detecting the amount of alcohol present in other liquids such as beverages. Further it does not enable the user to assess whether methanol is present rather than the desired ethanoi. it is therefore desirable to provide apparatus which enables the type and/or quantity of alcohol present in a liquid such as a beverage to be measured and/or indicates whether a contaminant is present.

Thus according to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for detecting alcohol in a liquid, said apparatus comprising:

a cover for a container; and

a fuel cell associated with the cover such that in use the fuel cell is in contact with the interior of the liquid container, said fuel cell being configured to determine the electrical voltage in the fuel cell, said fuel cell being indicative of the type and/or amount of alcohol present.

In its simplest arrangement, the cover may simply be a plate which can be placed over a container such as a glass or bottle containing the liquid. When the cover is in position, the fuel cell will be in contact with the head space between the top of the liquid and the underside of the cover.

In one arrangement the cover may be a cap. In this arrangement, the cover includes sides which extend around the side of the container for the liquid. However, since liquid containers may vary in size, in this arrangement, a plurality of caps would need to be supplied to the user to ensure that the user had a cap of a suitable size for any container encountered.

In an alternate arrangement the cover may be conical in shape. This arrangement enables the same cover to be used to cover a plurality of container sizes.

The cover may be of any suitable material. Generally it will be made from impact resistant plastics such that it is light and hard wearing.

The fuel cell may be associated with the cover by any suitable means. In one arrangement, it may be mounted on, or be integral with, the cover such that the vapour in the headspace is directly in contact with the fuel cell. The location of the fuel cell on the cover will be in any suitable position but will generally be located such that its operation is optimised.

Sn one alternative arrangement, the fuel ceil may be connected to the interior of the cover by a conduit.

Without wishing to be bound by any theory, the apparatus of the present invention samples the vapour above the liquid and as the vapour above the liquid wili be in equilibrium with the liquid below it, the effect is that by sampling the vapour, the apparatus is effectively sampling the liquid. It will be understood that the equilibrium between the liquid and the vapour is governed by universal gas laws,

Since the vapour pressure of methanol is different to that of ethanol, by detecting the vapour pressure, the fuel ceii can readily detect which alcohol is present in the liquid.

Although the apparatus of the present invention may not necessarily enable the identity of a contaminant to be established, the presence of a contaminant will alter the alcohol content of the liquid and thus detecting that the alcohol content is not that which is expected will be an indication that a contaminant is present.

In one arrangement, heating means may be provided to heat the vapour beneath the cover. However, generally this will not be required since the fuel cell will generally be able to operate at all practical temperature ranges.

The fuel cell may additionally measure the temperature beneath the cover.

The apparatus of the present invention will generally include a controller which will include response profiles equating electrical voltage to alcohol content. The controller will generally contain all of the alcohol programmes controlling the gas laws for every practical temperature range and the calculation of the amount of alcohol present will generally be based on alcohol level, vapour pressure, and temperature. The controller will generally include an algorithm which allows the type and/or amount of alcohol to be calculated.

The controller generally includes a display. In its simplest form the display may provide a means for indicating that the liquid is either acceptable or suspect so that the user can immediately see whether it can be used or whether it needs to be kept for further testing. However, generally, the display will provide more detailed information including information relating to the type and/or amount of alcohol present. In a further arrangement, the apparatus may additionally or alternatively include means for storing the results of the test, in this arrangement, the apparatus may also ^'include means for inputting information such as that selected from location, time, date, user identity and the like.

The controller may also allow for the apparatus when turned on to go through a calibration and check process which may include a countdown process. The apparatus may enable a visual or audible signal to be given when the apparatus is ready for use.

The controller may additionally include a timer. The fuel cei! may be of any suitable configuration, in one arrangement, it may be a fuel cell of the kind generally described in WO2010/079329 which is incorporated herein by reference.

The apparatus will generally be configured to run a few iterations, or cycles of programme, so that it is able to check its accuracy.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for detecting the alcohol content of a liquid comprising the steps of:

(a) providing apparatus for detecting the alcohol in a liquid according to the above first aspect;

(b) placing the cover of the apparatus over a container containing the liquid;

(c) allowing the fuel cell to detect the type and/or quantity of alcohol present to be detected; and

(d) optionally displaying the results.

The method and apparatus of the present invention may be used to detect alcohol in any liquid. However, it is particularly suitable to detect the type and/or quantity of alcohol in a beverage and in particular in spirits.

The present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the following drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2a is a schematic representation of the apparatus of the present invention in place on a glass;

Figure 2b is a schematic representation of the apparatus of the present invention in place on a bottle;

Figure 3 is a schematic representation of the controller and fuel cell mounted on a portion of the cover; and

Figure 4 is a schematic representation of an alternative arrangement for the controller and fuel cell mounted on a portion of the cover.

In the illustrated embodiment, the apparatus comprises a cover 1 which in this case is in the form of a cone. As illustrated in Figures 2a and 2b the conical shape enables the same cover to be used on a variety of different containers without the need to change the cover. The sloping sides of the cone mean that it will form a seal with the liquid container whatever its size.

The fuel cell will generally be located towards the top of the cone. In the illustrated embodiment the fuel cell 2 (see Figure 3) is located within a housing 3 associated with an opening 4 in the cover. In an alternate arrangement (see Figure 4) the fuel cell housing may be configured such that the fuel cell extends through an aperture in the cover.

The housing will include the controller 5 and generally a power supply such as a battery 6 which may be rechargeable,

A display 7 and one or more push buttons 8 may also be included. The push buttons may include on/off buttons and menu toggle/select buttons, in an alternate arrangement a touchscreen display may be used.

Claims

Apparatus for detecting alcohol in a liquid, said apparatus comprising;

a cover for a container; and

Apparatus according to Glaim 1 wherein the cover is a plate or a cap.

Apparatus according to Claim 1 wherein the cover is conical i shape.

Apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 to 3 wherein the fuel cell is mounted on or integral with the cover.

Apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 to 4 wherein the apparatus generally includes a controller which will include response profiles equating electrical voltage to alcohol content.

Apparatus according to Claim 8 wherein the controller includes an algorithm which allows the type and/or amount of alcohol to be calculated.

Apparatus according to Claim 5 or 8 wherein controller includes a display.

A method for detecting the alcohol content of a liquid comprising the steps of:

(a) providing apparatus for detecting the alcohol in a liquid according to any one of Claims 1 to 7;

(b) placing the cover of the apparatus over a container containing the liquid;

(d) optionally displaying the results.