FORM - 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patents Rules, 2006
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and Rule 13)


BEVERAGE VENDING METHOD AND DEVICE
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LIMITED, a company incorporated under
the Indian Companies Act, 1913 and having its registered office
at 165/166, Backbay Reclamation, Mumbai -400 020, Maharashtra, India
The following specification describes the invention

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of vending a hot beverage and to a portable beverage vending device. The invention is particularly suitable for dispensing and vending a hot beverage like water, milk, tea, coffee, soups or health drinks in public places.
Background and Prior art
People around the world consume a large number of beverages. Popular beverages include water, milk, juices, tea, coffee, soups, health drinks, energy drinks, carbonated drinks and beer and other alcoholic drinks. Depending on individual tastes and the beverage being consumed, the beverage may be consumed cold or consumed hot. Usually cold beverages include water, milk, tea, coffee, juices, health drinks, energy drinks, carbonated drinks and beer and other alcoholic drinks. By cold beverage is meant that the beverage is consumed at temperatures in the range of 0 to 20 °C. Beverages which are preferred to be consumed hot include water, milk, tea, coffee, health drinks and soups. By hot beverage is meant that the drink is consumed at temperatures in the range of about 60 to 85 °C.
Hot beverages are prepared in many ways. The beverages may be prepared in the kitchen in homes in a kettle where the beverages are heated on a stove where water and other ingredients if any are heated to desired temperature, filtered if required and then consumed in individual cups. Alternately hot water may be prepared in the kitchen and this hot water may be added to individual cups that contain premixed ingredients as powder/granules or as beverage concentrate powders encased in teabags. This method of preparing hot beverages is usually practiced in homes, hotels, restaurants and road side vending stalls.
Another popular format of preparing and vending hot beverages are through what are known as vending machines. These machines usually comprise both mechanical parts to store, mix and dispense the beverage and electronic parts to
2

control the operation of the machine. These vending machines are usually installed in fixed locations e.g. in office corridors, airports and railway stations etc. The vending machines are either operated by a vendor or the beverage may be dispensed from these machines on input of a coin / token by a consumer.
The above formats of preparing and vending hot beverages suffice for consumers who have time and motivation to go to these fixed vending machines for procuring their beverage. There are situations and places like stadiums, bus stops, railway stations and other public places like streets where a person may desire to have a hot beverage but may not have the time or may have to search in order to find the location of the nearest beverage vending machine/shop. In such situations, he is often deprived of the beverage that he desires to consume. This has been overcome, to some extent, by vendors who walk around such places carrying hot kettles containing the beverages in their hands or backpacks and dispense the beverage into individual cups for such consumers.
It has been found that hot beverages stored in such kettles, even if insulated, have limited application. The beverages tend to cool in about less than one hour and if all of the beverage is not sold in that time, the beverage is usually wasted and has to be thrown away. Further, in tropical countries, where the average ambient temperature is usually high, although the rate of cooling is thereby slower, it has been found from extensive consumer studies that hot beverage consumers prefer their beverage to be hotter than those beverages prepared by consumers in cooler climates. Thus, there is a need for providing a portable hot beverage portable vending device that maintains the temperature of the hot beverage for much longer times as compared to such vending devices presently available.
One such vending device is described in UK patent application GB2367550 (Smith, 2002). This patent application discloses a portable water dispenser comprising a reservoir for storing water, a pressure pump for pressurising the water supply to
3

make the beverage and a primer pump for pumping water from the reservoir to the pressure pump. Preferably the dispenser is provided with a heat exchanger to heat the water supply before it is used and this forms part of a cappuccino/espresso coffee machine. Although the aim of the this invention is similar to the present invention i.e. to provide hot beverage by a vendor who walks around with the device in outdoor locations where people who desire to have such beverage, the present inventors have found that the heat provided to the hot beverage and the way the heat is retained is insufficient to keep the beverage hot for the desired long period of time.
The present invention comprises preparing hot beverage at greater than 100 °C in a pressure vessel which can be carried around by a person to dispense the beverage as and when required. Portable boilers where steam is generated for bottle sterilization purposes are also known. US2002/0029775 (Sabin, 2002) claims a method of sanitizing a bottle water dispenser, the method comprising transporting a portable boiler to a location of a bottled water dispenser; generating steam in the portable boiler at the location of the bottled water dispenser; flow coupling an outlet of the portable boiler with an opening of the bottled water dispenser, the opening leading to a fluid flow path of the bottled water dispenser; flowing steam through the outlet of the portable boiler; flowing steam into the fluid flow path through the opening of the bottled water dispenser; and maintaining steam flow through at least a portion of the fluid flow path for a time period sufficient to sanitise the reservoir. Thus, although steam is generated in the above US patent application, there is no teaching of use of a pressure vessel in a portable vending machine which generates super heated water above 100 °C for preparing a hot beverage.
Objects of the invention
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide for a method of vending a hot beverage from a portable vending device where the beverage remains hot for much longer time as compared to similar methods employed in the past.
4

It is another object of the present invention to provide for a portable beverage vending device which can be carried around by a person for dispensing for much longer time as compared to similar devices of the past thereby ensuring minimum wastage.
Summary of the invention
According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of vending a hot beverage from a portable vending device comprising the steps of (i) feeding a beverage into an insulated pressure vessel through a liquid port; (ii) heating the beverage in the pressure vessel to a temperature higher than
100 °C at a predetermined heating station; (iii) dispensing the hot beverage from said pressure vessel through said liquid
port into desired receptacles.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable
beverage vending device comprising
(i) an insulated pressure vessel, including a liquid port;
(ii) said pressure vessel provided with means for heating of the beverage to a
temperature higher than 100 °C; such that beverage fed into said pressure vessel through said liquid port is heated to a temperature higher than 100 °C by said heating means, and is capable of being dispensed through said liquid port into desired receptacles at any desired location.
Brief Description of Figures
Figure - 1 is a schematic of an embodiment of a beverage vending machine as per the present invention.
5

Detailed description of the invention
The invention relates to a method of vending a hot beverage. The hot beverage is prepared in a pressure vessel where it is heated to a controlled temperature which is higher than 100 °C. The contents of the pressure vessel may be heated at a predetermined heating station. By predetermined heating station is meant a location where the contents of the pressure vessel are heated. The heating may be by way of placing the pressure vessel on a flame or through use of electrical energy. The beverage is preferably heated using electrical coils provided in said pressure vessel, through which current is passed to generate heat.
The pressure vessel is provided with a liquid port for feeding and discharging the liquid contents viz. the beverage. The liquid port is preferably provided on the top surface of the pressure vessel. The pressure vessel is encased within an insulating bag so that heat losses are minimized. It is preferred that the insulating bag is so configured that it that is capable of being carried around by a person e.g. the bag may be a backpack.
Hot beverages which may be prepared for vending by the method of the invention include water, milk, tea, coffee, soup or health drinks. Health drinks include beverages which have specific health benefit ingredients. These drinks may or may not have flavours included. Popular health drinks are usually sold in malted, chocolate or vanilla flavours as powders. These powders may be added to milk or hot water to prepare the hot beverage. Especially preferred hot beverage which may be prepared by the present invention is hot water. When the beverage is hot water, then the hot water thus prepared may then be dispensed into individual cups to which another beverage concentrate may be present or may be post-dosed. Such beverage concentrate may be tea, coffee, soup or health drinks. Alternatively, any of the above hot beverage may be directly prepared in the pressure vessel for
6

dispensing into individual cups. The beverage in a pressure vessel is configured so as to be heated to a controlled temperature higher than 100 °C. The beverage is preferably heated to a temperature in the range of 105 to 120 °C, more preferably in the range of 107 to 115 °C. The pressure in the vessel is preferably in the range of 0.5 to 0.75 bar gauge.
The pressure vessel has a liquid port which is used for both feeding the beverage and for discharge of the hot beverage. The liquid port may be provided with a valve, preferably a non-return valve to ensure the desired pressure in the pressure vessel and to aid in controlled dispensing of the hot beverage from the vessel. The liquid port is preferably operatively connected to and in fluid communication with a downcomer. The downcomer, when present, is a tube that extents from the liquid port on the inside of the pressure vessel to a position close to the bottom of the pressure vessel. The downcomer ensures that the beverage fed to the vessel flows through the downcomer to collect at the bottom of the vessel. For discharge of the hot beverage, the downcomer acts as the conduit for passage of the hot beverage from the bottom of the pressure vessel to the liquid port for discharge out of the pressure vessel.
When the beverage is fresher and the temperature is higher than 100 °C, the pressure inside the pressure vessel is above atmospheric pressure. In such cases, there is no need of external pressure to aid dispensing of the beverage from the pressure vessel. The beverage may be dispensed by simply opening the valve provided on the liquid port and the higher pressure in the pressure vessel ensures discharge of the hot beverage into desired receptacles.
When the pressure inside the vessel drops to atmospheric pressure i.e when the temperature drops to 100 °C and below, the hot beverage inside the pressure vessel has to be discharged by applying an external pressure into the vessel. This may be achieved by pumping air into the pressure through a pneumatic port that may be
7

provided on the pressure vessel. The pneumatic port is preferably provided on the top surface of the pressure vessel. The hot beverage, in such cases, is pneumatically dispensed from the pressure vessel. A simple hand pump with a cylinder and piston-and-rod arrangement suffices to discharge the hot beverage from the pressure vessel.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable beverage vending device comprising (i) an insulated pressure vessel, including a liquid port; (ii) said pressure vessel provided with means for heating of the beverage to a temperature higher than 100 °C; such that beverage fed into said pressure vessel through said liquid port is heated to a temperature higher than 100 °C by said heating means, and is capable of being dispensed through said liquid port into desired receptacles at any desired location.
The pressure vessel may be carried in any insulating bag but an insulating backpack is most preferred. The backpack option allows the vendor to keep his hands free for holding a cup in one hand and for operating the hand pump with the other hand, if necessary. The pressure vessel preferably has a volume from 2 to 10 liters, more preferably from 3 to 7 liters.
The means for heating preferably are electrical heating coils in said pressure vessel which is capable of being heated using power supply through a temperature controller. Alternate but less preferred means for heating include jackets on the pressure vessel through which hot air or oil at the desired temperature is passed so as to increase the temperature of the contents in the pressure vessel to the desired temperature higher than 100 °C. The means for controlling the temperature of the contents in the pressure vessel is preferably a temperature controller. Temperature controllers are well known and any suitable controller available in the market may be used. A temperature controller has the usual parts viz. a detector for measuring the temperature e.g. a thermocouple or a bimetallic strip and an electronic controller
8

which controls the current leading to the heating coils for increasing the temperature of the contents of the pressure vessel.
The portable beverage vending device preferably comprises a pneumatic port for inlet of pressurized gas into the vessel to enable convenient discharge of the hot beverage from the vessel through the liquid port when the pressure in the vessel is close to atmospheric pressure.
The beverage vending device preferably has a non-return valve on the liquid port. When a pneumatic port is present on the pressure vessel, it preferably comprises a non-return valve. These valves help maintain the pressure inside the pressure vessel. The liquid port is preferably connected to a hand held trigger gun which may be manually actuated to discharge the desired amount of hot beverage.
When the pressure inside the pressure vessel falls to atmospheric pressure the contents inside the vessel may be discharged through use of a suitable pneumatic system. A suitable pneumatic system is a hand pump operatively connected to the pressure vessel through a pneumatic port. The hand pump is usually a cylinder and piston-and-rod assembly where the pressurization of the volume of air in the cylinder by hand activation of the piston may be routed through a suitable port on the hand pump to the pneumatic port of the pressure vessel for pressurising the vessel for easy and convenient discharge of the hot beverage from the vessel.
Detailed description of the Figures
Figure -1 is a schematic of a beverage vending device as per the invention. The device comprises a pressure vessel (V) of 5 liter capacity which is provided with a liquid port (LP) and a pneumatic port