Use of Ohmic heating in Aseptic Systems

Performances, Advantages and Product Quality

1
 Sterilization Technologies
Our philosophy is to choose, from our complete portfolio the appropriate
technology for each product type:
DAIRY CONCENTRATES JUICES FORMULATED FORMULATED
PRODUCTS WITH
PARTICLES

STEAM INJECTION
DIRECT HEATING

STEAM INFUSION

TUBE IN TUBE
TUBE IN TUBE

TUBULAR CONCENTRIC TUBE

TUBE CHEST

INDIRECT HEATING

SCRAPED SURFACE

PLATES

OHMIC

NEW TECHNOLOGY
RADIOFREQUENCY
3/26/2015
Ohmic Heating 2
 Why ohmic? New products  new technology

MARKET DEMAND:
1. Products with BETTER COLOR
2. Products with SUPERIOR TASTE
3. Products with larger and more
defined PARTICLES.

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 Ohmic heating: basic principle

Ohm’s law apply to electric circuits

The current flowing between two points is directly proportional to
Voltage and inversely proportional to Electric Resistance.

Resistance
Amperage

Amperage Power
supply
V=R xl
[Volts] = [Ohm] x [Amperes]

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 Ohmic Heater Technology Principle

APPLICATOR 1.000/5.000 V
30kHz

P = R I2
P = V2 /R

450V
60Hz

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 Ohmic heating: think different

It depends on an unconventional new parameter:

ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY

 Good Modulation of the heat load

 Electrical/Thermal process proportional to the injected and absorbed
power
 Power is easy to control due to the lack of inertia
 Stable temperatures / Small temperature fluctuations
but a “clever” PID is essential to control energy flow

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 Ohmic heating: based on electrical conductivity

Fruit Cheese
Raw water Vegetable Sauce
Starch Creme fraiche Meat Products, pet foods
Milk based Dessert Whey
Compote chocolate
Honey Moutarde ketchup
Sugar Fruit juice
Eggs, Seafood, fish
beer, milk
Blood

CURRENT
CURRENT FLOWS
DOES NOT Conductivity in S/m at 68 ° F WITHOUT A
FLOW TEMPERATURE
RISE
0,01 0,1 0,4 0,7 1 10

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 Ohmic heating: limit of the concept – 1
Product Mass Flow in the installation

Constant flow Non constant flow

 Importance of the Metering Pump

 Importance of the Product formulation:
o liquid viscosity
o liquid / particles ratio
o particles size

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 Ohmic heating: limit of the concept – 2
Velocity distribution & Residence time

Laminar flow: Re < 2 x 103 Turbulent flow: Re > 104

Residence time depends on velocity distribution which changes

according to viscosity, temperature, ect.

Common conservative assumption for laminar flow of Newtonian and

pseudoplastic fluids:

MIN residence time is calculated from: v max = 2 x vaverage

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 Ohmic heating: limits and control

An example:
Kinetics of ohmic heating with good balance between particles and liquid
heating
Diced potatoes in sauce

particle

sauce

TEMP [°C]
 Similar Conductivities (dice
and liquid)
 Parallel heating curves
 Fast heating (about 1° C/s)

Time [s]

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 Ohmic Heating vs Traditional Technologies

Ohmic
Tubular
Product Temperature (°C)

Autoclave

Time (minutes)

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 HTST and consequences

Ohmic
FAST temperature rise
→ low CV

Tubular
INTERMEDIATE temperature
→ limitation of the CV

Autoclave
SLOW temperature rise
→ important CV

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 Power Generator

CFT has developed a new range

of ohmic heaters with operating
characteristics allowing to
exceed the performances
traditionally achieved with older
generators.

The main development of these

heaters is represented by the
new concept of the power
generator electronic architecture.

The generator operates at a

constant frequency range from
20,000 to 30.000Hz by
modulating the power delivery
through the duty cycle control.

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 Generator automatic voltage system

The generator is equipped with an automatic voltage change system that

allows to maintain the thermal power delivery even when the conductivity
of the product changes.
This voltage management system is a standard part of all CFT
generators and allows the delivery of power by heating a large variety of
food products with a range of conductivity between 0.01 and 5 S/m
without production stops and/or manual intervention by the operator.
The particular flexibility of the generator allows to heat any food and to
also transmit full power to the water thus simplifying the emptying phase
of the system at the end of production.

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 Architecture of the CONVERTER

AC-DC conversion DC-AC conversion Voltage change trough

through diode bridge through square wave mono transformer with multiple
and capacitor phase converter secondary circuits

440 V 622 V 622 V

60 Hz DC 30 kHz
tri phase AC mono phase AC

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 Architecture of the CONVERTER

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 The power control strategy: duty-cycle

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 The power control strategy: quick response

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 The power control strategies

Q = M x Cp x (Tout – Tin) x Factor

1) Feed forward given Tsetpoint, measures Tin and M to calculate Q and

modulate electric Power regardless of Tout
2) Feed forward + PID as in Feed forward plus measures Tout to correct
Factor
3) PID measures Tout to modulate electric Power regardless of
Tin and M

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 Electrical parameters control system

In parallel to the project of power

electronics an innovative electrical
parameters control system has been
developed based on the reading of
power directly detected at source; this
system allows to be particularly
accurate in the management of both
energy consumption and heating
temperatures settings.
The management of the generator is
integrated with a user-friendly software
entirely developed with Siemens S7
PLC, which allows the operator to
manage all parameters, alarms and
process data logging through a simple
and intuitive interface.
It is evident that the high efficiency of
the system offers an overall yield higher
than 97%.
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 Ohmic heating: An Interesting Concept

1. No Heat Transfer Surface (applicators remains cold)

– Minimal convection and conduction heat transfer required.
– Pipe walls remain colder than the product
– Low fouling:  Long Runs

2. Homogeneous Mass Heating

– Low temperature gradient in the heating pipe (applicator)

3. Heat is generated directly at the core of the particle

– No limits in terms of pipe diameter (free flow)
– No limits in terms of food particle dimensions
– Few limits to power delivered to the food  Fast heating

4. High energy efficiency > 97%

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 Complete CFT ohmic processing line

Ohmic heating is just a step but…

quality must be preserved in all the

different steps of process
transformation.

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 Complete ohmic processing line

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 CFT complete ohmic processing line for diced fruits
Flowchart

Preparation and mixing

20°C 65°C 5

Bertoli Siringe Pump TP2315

4

3 6
Ohmic Heating
65°C 98°C
1 1 2

Holding and cooling

98°C 25°C
4 5
6
Aseptic storage 3
1 1
Aseptic filling Macropak®
2
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 CFT complete ohmic processing line for diced fruits
Flowchart

“…I think the benefits that

we should highlight are
improvement in:
1) texture
2) cost
3) and yield.

This is the data on texture

from our first year of
peach production…. In
general texture from
aseptic are higher
discounting the outliers
(Aug 20 and 22 data)…”

E-mail from a Customer

using Ohmic Technology
for aseptic peach and
pear dices.

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 Preparation and mixing of ingredients:
Horizontal Mix Tanks

Agitator - slow rotation speed

Paddles

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 Special Volumetric Pumps
Newly patented piston pump for products with particles

Pump X type - Up to 40 bars

Pump X Working
Capacity
X 3008 2.800 l/h
X 3011 8.000 l/h
X 3015 13.500 l/h
X 3022 22.000 l/h

Pump TP2315 – Up to 12 Bars

Working
Capacity
2315 3000 l/h

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 The Ohmic heater: a simple and neat design

• Fast heating
• Uniform heating (particles and
liquid products)
• Products with bigger particles.
• Products with pH > 4.5 and
sterilization temperature
above 135 °C

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 60 kW Ohmic heater (3 X 20kW) with automatic
commutation

Inside of the
power cabinet
with the power
supplies

The power generator is combined with a new set of applicators where the
electrical energy is converted into thermal energy returned to the food product.
These applicators, made of plastic material with FDA validation, are particularly
resistant to the pressure and combine the traditional insulating properties typical
of plastic with excellent adhesion which minimizes fouling phenomena even in
case of prolonged production of "difficult" food with high content of milk proteins,
starches and sugars.
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 HMI SYSTEM

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 Aseptic storage
Horizontal and vertical aseptic tanks

• Tank is designed
and tested to
withstand 5
bar pressure and
full vacuum
• Tank can be built
with diameters and
heights to match
with available space
and required
process
• Tank can be
equipped with any
kind of agitator.

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 Aseptic filler

• Dosing valve with 3" full

passage

• Steam sterilization of
the spout at 120 °C
before lid perforation.

• 2" and 3" caps with

automatic sealing of the
aluminum lid at the end
of filling.

• Supervision system.

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 Products range treatable with ohmic heating

Fruits & vegetables Soups, ready meals, sauces

wholes, diced & purees, juices with big and little particles, velvety &
moulinè
IQF products
Soups and ready meals with particles:
Fresh products • Vegetables soupes (such as mix of
potatoes, carrots, legumes…)
Particles:
• Ready meals ( such as mix of meat,
• Beans and other vegetables
pasta/rice, vegetables…)
• Soft fruits (berries and red fruits)
• Tomato sauces (with meat or vegetables
Diced & purees such as: mix such as Carbonara, Bolognese..)
• Tomato Smooth sauces
• Apples and Pears • Cheese based sauces
• Peaches • White sauces
• Mushrooms
• Pineapple, mango and tropical fruits
Juices such as:
• Smoothies
• Orange juices with /without sacs
• Vegetables juices with / without particles

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 CFT ohmic heating processing line
starting from IQF berries to puree

IQF blocks IQF Strawberry IQF Strawberry - crusher

Defrosting and Giubileo® refining Ohmic treatment Filling

line
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 CFT ohmic heating processing line
starting from fresh product to vegetable and fruit smoothies

Receiving fresh cucumber Receiving fresh carrots Receiving beetroot

Pumping big particles

Recipe mixing Ultra clean filling
pump 2315 Bertoli

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 CFT ohmic heating technology
examples of processed product

Diced peaches

Raw peach cubes Sterile peach cubes after ohmic heating

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 References among the biggest in the world

Country Application Eletric power installed

France Low acid soups 240 kW
Fruit purees and fruit
France 240 kW
preparations
USA Diced fruit 600 kW
Fruit and vegetables
France 320 kW
smoothies
Fruit – low acid food –
France 60 kW
soup
France Vegetable and fruit puree 180 kW
France Grape concentrate & juice 360 kW
France Baby Food 60 kW

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 CFT‘s recommended processing strategy

• To obtain a quality food product it is essential to respect its characteristics

during every phase of the sterilization / pasteurization process.
• Ohmic technology carries out the product heating phase in an extremely
fast manner reducing thermal damage and pressure drops.
• Ohmic technology has to be coupled with traditional processing
technologies (preparation, pumping, cooling, aseptic filling, aseptic
storage).
• Collaboration with dedicated R&D food technology centers for recipe
formulation

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 CFT S.p.A.
Via Paradigna, 94/A - 43122 Parma - Italy
Ph. +39 0521 277111 - fax +39 0521 798404

www.cft-group.com