Plant based foods: Towards sustainable and acceptable meat analogues. The project aims to address the need for engineering plant-based food products to deliver a sensory experience akin to meat. The project expects to generate new knowledge on the structural drivers for emulating meat-like texture and taste within burger products. Expected outcomes of this project include new ingredients and food characterisation methodologies, including rheology and sensory, which can be employed in rational ....Plant based foods: Towards sustainable and acceptable meat analogues. The project aims to address the need for engineering plant-based food products to deliver a sensory experience akin to meat. The project expects to generate new knowledge on the structural drivers for emulating meat-like texture and taste within burger products. Expected outcomes of this project include new ingredients and food characterisation methodologies, including rheology and sensory, which can be employed in rational food structure design. This should provide significant benefits in enhancing the consumer acceptance of plant-based foods that is required to support the rapidly growing market opportunity for them and sustainable food production.Read moreRead less
Optimising Removal of Proteinaceous Foulants from Membranes. Removal of proteinacous foulants from membrane systems imposes both significant economic costs in terms of chemical usage as well as significant environmental costs in terms of water usage and production of effluents from the cleaning and rinsing waters. The outcome of this project should allow us to develop methods for the prediction and optimisation of membrane cleaning performance of relevance to major Australian industries includin ....Optimising Removal of Proteinaceous Foulants from Membranes. Removal of proteinacous foulants from membrane systems imposes both significant economic costs in terms of chemical usage as well as significant environmental costs in terms of water usage and production of effluents from the cleaning and rinsing waters. The outcome of this project should allow us to develop methods for the prediction and optimisation of membrane cleaning performance of relevance to major Australian industries including the dairy, food processing and water and waste water treatment industries.Read moreRead less
The Development of New Carrier Technologies for Spray-Dried Fruit Extracts. This project aims to develop new carrier techniques for spray drying fruit extracts based on the use of natural fibres, with the aim of overcoming a key problem in the operation of spray dryers for producing powders, the deposition of particles on walls. Carriers are non-sticky materials that effectively dilute the stickiness of any materials. The significance is that it will use waste products from fruit processing (th ....The Development of New Carrier Technologies for Spray-Dried Fruit Extracts. This project aims to develop new carrier techniques for spray drying fruit extracts based on the use of natural fibres, with the aim of overcoming a key problem in the operation of spray dryers for producing powders, the deposition of particles on walls. Carriers are non-sticky materials that effectively dilute the stickiness of any materials. The significance is that it will use waste products from fruit processing (the fibres from skins) to overcome this problem, and it will also be possible to dry sticky materials using material from the fruit itself, rather than additives such as maltodextrin.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Training Centres - Grant ID: IC140100026
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,997,000.00
Summary
ARC Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry in the 21st Century. ARC Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry in the 21st Century. The Training Centre will educate a new generation of engineers and scientists and foster the capacity of Australian food industries to further develop advanced technologies in manufacturing and product improvement. The key objective is to support industry production of nutraceuticals for the promotion of health and well-being. I ....ARC Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry in the 21st Century. ARC Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry in the 21st Century. The Training Centre will educate a new generation of engineers and scientists and foster the capacity of Australian food industries to further develop advanced technologies in manufacturing and product improvement. The key objective is to support industry production of nutraceuticals for the promotion of health and well-being. In enabling the production of these nutraceuticals the Training Centre will design cost effective and sustainable processes that minimise waste-products, enhance efficiency and minimize the energy consumption. These high value products have enormous potential globally to boost not only partner company revenues but to significantly increase Australian exports in agribusiness.Read moreRead less
Innovative zero-energy membrane technologies to reduce water consumption in the dairy industry. The Australian dairy industry not only plays a critical role in our way of life, but processed dairy products contribute to 12% or $3.27b to Australia's export revenue. It has learnt to adapt to changing market demands through innovative membrane technologies, but now energy and water are key issues. This project aims to reduce water consumption in dairy processing by treating waste streams using nove ....Innovative zero-energy membrane technologies to reduce water consumption in the dairy industry. The Australian dairy industry not only plays a critical role in our way of life, but processed dairy products contribute to 12% or $3.27b to Australia's export revenue. It has learnt to adapt to changing market demands through innovative membrane technologies, but now energy and water are key issues. This project aims to reduce water consumption in dairy processing by treating waste streams using novel membrane processes including membrane distillation. The energy is supplied from low grade waste heat, offsetting the need to supply more power to the plant. Reducing the need for water in a zero-energy way will ensure the thriving dairy industry remains cost competitive and an integral part of Australia's culture and economy.Read moreRead less
Application of a Novel Reflux Classifier for Separating Nut Shell Fragments from Powdered Food Mixtures. An important operation in the food industry is the physical separation of valuable particles from a mixture containing waste materials, such as shell fragments. The purpose of this study is to investigate the application of a novel gas-solid fluidised bed system, utilising parallel inclined plates to radically amplify the differential segregation rates to produce separations based on particle ....Application of a Novel Reflux Classifier for Separating Nut Shell Fragments from Powdered Food Mixtures. An important operation in the food industry is the physical separation of valuable particles from a mixture containing waste materials, such as shell fragments. The purpose of this study is to investigate the application of a novel gas-solid fluidised bed system, utilising parallel inclined plates to radically amplify the differential segregation rates to produce separations based on particle size. Our aim is to develop a fundamental understanding of the principles governing the nature of this system. The project should result in considerable technological and economic benefits for the food industry, a well trained and educated person at the postgraduate level, and a stronger collaborative link between the University and Sanitarium.Read moreRead less
Understanding and Controlling Wall Deposition in Spray Dryers via Experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Studies. A key problem in operating spray dryers for producing milk powders and other consumer products, such as detergents, is the occurrence of internal wall deposits of powder, leading to thermal degradation of the products and potential fire hazards. However, no fundamental theory has been applied in spray dryers to allow this process to be controlled. The proposed project wi ....Understanding and Controlling Wall Deposition in Spray Dryers via Experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Studies. A key problem in operating spray dryers for producing milk powders and other consumer products, such as detergents, is the occurrence of internal wall deposits of powder, leading to thermal degradation of the products and potential fire hazards. However, no fundamental theory has been applied in spray dryers to allow this process to be controlled. The proposed project will use state-of-the-art experimental and computational techniques to gain a fundamental understanding of this phenomenon and will develop a validated wall deposition model to predict when and to what extent this process occurs, to give higher throughputs and/or more efficient systems.Read moreRead less
Improving Powder Properties by Using Spray Dryers to Process Amorphous Components of Solids into Crystalline Materials. Australia has a large food and dairy processing industry, capturing 13% of the world dairy export market, worth US$460 million annually. This proposal will build on Australia's strengths in dairy and food industries, particularly milk powder products. This project will enhance our competitive advantage in the production of dried foodstuffs by streamlining their production and ....Improving Powder Properties by Using Spray Dryers to Process Amorphous Components of Solids into Crystalline Materials. Australia has a large food and dairy processing industry, capturing 13% of the world dairy export market, worth US$460 million annually. This proposal will build on Australia's strengths in dairy and food industries, particularly milk powder products. This project will enhance our competitive advantage in the production of dried foodstuffs by streamlining their production and allowing tailored and new powder products to be created.Read moreRead less
Wet granule mechanics and their influence on agglomeration behaviour and granulation processes. Granulation is a widely-used particle size enlargement process performed by spraying a liquid binder onto an agitated powder mass. It is currently impossible to quantitatively predict granule growth behaviour in terms of the fundamental properties of the particles and binder. This project will measure and model the deformation of granules and the strength of bonds formed between them and use this info ....Wet granule mechanics and their influence on agglomeration behaviour and granulation processes. Granulation is a widely-used particle size enlargement process performed by spraying a liquid binder onto an agitated powder mass. It is currently impossible to quantitatively predict granule growth behaviour in terms of the fundamental properties of the particles and binder. This project will measure and model the deformation of granules and the strength of bonds formed between them and use this information to predict their growth behaviour. Special attention will be given to the effects of strain-rate and particle morphology in granulation mechanics. Improvements in granulation technology will be of great benefit to food, pharmaceutical, agricultural, explosives and mining industries and opens the way to 'designer granulation' for special purposes.Read moreRead less
Multiscale viscoelastic lubrication of soft matter systems. The project aims to develop new principles of viscoelastic lubrication in soft contacts. New insights into friction behaviour arising from complex fluid-substrate interactions are expected to be generated using techniques and interdisciplinary approaches that bridge rheology, tribology and surface science. The intended outcome is a lubrication model that interprets the contribution of viscoelastic effects occurring across multiple lengt ....Multiscale viscoelastic lubrication of soft matter systems. The project aims to develop new principles of viscoelastic lubrication in soft contacts. New insights into friction behaviour arising from complex fluid-substrate interactions are expected to be generated using techniques and interdisciplinary approaches that bridge rheology, tribology and surface science. The intended outcome is a lubrication model that interprets the contribution of viscoelastic effects occurring across multiple length and time scales. This should provide significant benefits to diverse fields including advanced materials and complex fluids, engineering tribology, bio-lubrication and food structure design.Read moreRead less