Final Report Summary - LOWTEV II (Low Temperature and Lean Volume Cleaning System –<br/>Demonstrating the Project Results)
Executive Summary:
Europe needs a sustainable approach to water resource management, focusing on conserving water and using it more efficiently. Within the EU 27, over 247,000 million m3 of water is used every year (NEWCRONOS, Eurostat 2002). Approximately 15% of this is accounted for by industry which equates to 37,050 million m3/year. The food processing industry is a major contributor to water-abstraction, specifically drinking-quality water.
It has been underlined by the European Commission that given the increase world demand for and pressure on natural resources, existing technologies are not adequate to safeguard sustainable development in the long term. Reports on water use vary depending on country; however, the EU has identified a potential 30 - 65% saving on water use within the food processing industry (AcTeon, 2007). Industrials, proposing advanced technologies, identified potential alternative solutions to water efficient cleaning and sanitization in the food industry.
Engineering experts and food industrials gathered around the LOWTEV Low Temperature & Lean Volume Cleaning System project. It was a 2 year €1.1m project supported by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission. Four European countries were represented to deliver a system capable of reducing water consumption used during conveyor belt cleaning within the Food processing and manufacturing sectors. This project consortium worked towards the development of a novel automated cleaning system which would reduce the levels of giveaway associated with food-processing cleaning practices particularly water and energy consumption.
By acquiring new knowledge around the coupling of ultrasound with low water pressure delivery, a novel CIP system was developed which is effective without the use of heated water or chemical detergents for most applications, otherwise a small volume of chemical is used to enhance the effects of the ultrasounds. The technology delivers effective CIP against biofilms, bacteria and foodstuff contamination (including allergenic proteins) with reduction in water consumption, energy requirements and labour compared to standard methods. Other benefits include an integrated hygiene monitoring system to ensure sufficient cleaning resulting in improved health and safety records, reduced downtime due to cleaning and reduced labour costs. This system is now being developed in the LOWTEV II project, second phase of the LOWTEV project aiming at getting a marketable product by 2014. The final consumer will have the possibility to consume better quality products.
Project Context and Objectives:
The purpose of the LOWTEV II project has been to develop an ultrasound cleaning in place machine to clean conveyor belts of the food industry without chemical or nearly with no chemicals.
Engineering experts and food industrials collaborated on this subject. The contribution of food industrials (Frais Embal, Dalehead Foods, Narpak) from different food sectors ( fresh fish, meat and fruits) and from different countries (France, England and Turkey) permitted to the manufacturing partners to identify risks from and to bring out great principles to follow in order to meet food industrial needs: a mobile system to be able to move it for cleaning for example, an easy to use so the industrial can install/uninstall it easily, a compact system so that it can slide into bulk, a universal system to be affordable by SMEs as food industry is composed for the most of SMEs.
The European scope of this project is embodied first by the origins of the partners involved in the project. To reach other European countries, different of partner’s origins, the manufacturing partners defined an action plan. First, the manufacturing partners decided to focus on a limited number of countries: France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom for different reasons. Secondly, the partners selected five food sectors high water consumers and likely to be interested: Meat processing, fish processing, fruits and vegetables processing, bakery processing, and confectionary processing.
There were already expressions of interest for the project from food industrials in the food sectors selected, what tends to confirm the relevance of the choices made and confirmed the interest of the technology by final users as they will have the possibility to eat better quality products.
This project meets the objectives of different actors: the reduction of water use meets the will of the Authorities, the fact that industrials will have an ergonomic and efficient machine while realizing savings meets their objectives, and the consumer will have available better quality food products for its great pleasure.
Project Results:
PRINCIPLE:
The principle of the system developed is a Continuous cleaning system for conveyor belts in the food industry using ultrasound in presence of water
TYPE OF BELT:
The types of belts treated with this system can be smooth belts or modular belts.
WIDTH OF BELT:
2 widths are proposed:
≤40 cm
≤60 cm
Beyond these dimensions, a specific tank has to be developepd.
ULTRASOUND FREQUENCY:
The ultrasounds frequencies available and validated for cleaning by SinapTec are:
28 kHz or 40 kHz
QUANTITY OF WATER IN THE BATH:
The ultrasonic bath of the system contains approximately 5 L of water
WATER FLOW IN THE ULTRASONIC TANK:
The water flow of the system is 0.3 L / min
RENIEWING OF WATER IN THE BATH:
With a water flow of 0.3 L/min, the water bath is renewed every 15 min
CONVEYOR RUN SPEED:
The conveyor speed tested is 5m/min
OVERALL DIMENSIONS:
The trolley dimensions are max L 1270- H 960- W 450mm
NECESSARY DIMENSION UNDER THE CONVEYOR:
The necessary place available under the system is 917 mm.
WEIGHT:
The weight of the system is around 75 kg, easy to move as it is concept with rollers.
ELECTRICAL CABINET– 2000W generator:
Electrical cabinet at the beginning of the project Electrical cabinet on the industrial version
At the beginning of the project the electrical cabinet was more bulky because the system needed three 500W generators but to reduce its size and manufacturing costs, SinapTec developed the 2000W generator so now there is only one more powerful generator instead of three.
It is not possible to provide more information on the prototype in this report as it is planned to patent the system.
Potential Impact:
The LOWTEV system is at the cross roads of several EU priorities namely making of the Union an innovation union, enhancing SMEs competitiveness and develop a sustainable behavior.
Moreover, from our analyses it appears that the system has potential on its market and would meet both the industrials needs, as its use would allow savings of water, energy and chemicals, and thus allow money savings. It would also allow meet the customer’s needs thanks to the delivery of a best product in terms of health and aspect. The use of the LOWTEV system would also help the industries to comply with the EU water regulation.
The system developed also meets a European issue very present, the exploitation of the results of Research to lead to market applications and products.
The LOWTEV system complies with safety norms and standards applicable for the food and drink sector.
From a political point of view, the LOWTEV system meets several EU policies: Europe makes its most to encourage industries and European countries to invest in innovation.
A new plan has been adopted in 2010, the “Europe 2020 strategy” to manage the development of the European Research Area.
In this new strategy, Europe defines priorities to invest in, and the knowledge and innovation field is one of the key sectors highlighted through the “Innovation Union” flagship initiative. Europe defines the target of a 3% investment of countries GDP in research, development and innovation.
Europe’s support is reflected through the Framework Program financial tool. This program finances both research and development activities and the product developed by the LOWTEV II project was supported by the 7th Framework Program and thus inserts in the European priority regarding research and development.
The product developed in the LOWTEV II project addresses the food and drink industry which is comprised for 99.1% of SMEs. The LOWTEV II project aims at developing a system suitable for food and drink companies but also affordable by SMEs as the main target of this market are SMEs.
By delivering an innovative system affordable both by SMEs and large industries, the LOWTEV II consortium acts in favor of equal competitiveness among Food and Drink actors. By allowing SMEs to be competitive, this equates to allowing the creation of job opportunities and create turnover for companies. Moreover, this will also help European food and drink sector to be more competitive facing other countries and increase the EU R&D investment compared to other countries.
The EU Sustainable Development Strategy was first set up in 2001. Followed in 2002 a World Summit on Sustainable Development which aimed at setting up national plans and programs on sustainable consumption and production. The EU contribution to this plan was published in 2008 and is called the “Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy Action Plan”. Thanks to our innovative CIP system, it will be possible to achieve water and energy consumption reductions thus meeting the sustainable requirements.
From an economic point of view, and as explained by the FoodDrinkEurope president, Jesus Sarafin Pérez, in his foreword of the Competitiveness Report 2012, “the EU Food and Drink industry is a veritable pillar of the EU economy”. It is Europe’s largest manufacturing sector both in terms of turnover with €956 billion, and in terms of employment with the creation of 4.1 million jobs.
The Food Processing Industry is a market of 287 000 companies of which 99.1% are SMEs and is divided in several food sectors as shown below:
Each of these sectors is addressed by the system developed in this project provided that the process uses belts.
As explained in the Competitiveness Report 2012, the EU food and Drink industry lags behind its international competitors in terms of labor productivity and competitiveness.
The LOWTEV system is an efficient cleaning solution allowing water consumption and energy savings. To water savings, can be added energy savings thanks to the use of low temperature water and chemicals savings as the system has proved efficient cleaning without using chemicals. The LOWTEV system also allows increasing productivity as cleaning is achieved during production and avoids loosing time stopping production to achieve cleaning.
So, by investing in the LOWTEV system companies would increase their productivity and make savings.
The LOWTEV system aims at making easier workers life as it achieves cleaning during production and doesn’t require cleaning it manually. Operators work will be less painful as, added to that, the system has been developed to be easy to move either to the cleaning zone or to another line , and also easy to dissemble and reassemble. To turn it on, it will only require pressing a button, so as to turn it off. Given all these elements, it is likely that the system will be well appreciated among operators working on the line.
By allowing cost savings, the system will be also an opportunity for the company to reinvest savings in the creation of new jobs and thus make the company grow.
From the point of view of food innovation trends, food industrials innovate on 15 trends of which health (natural, medical, vegetal) as illustrated by the picture below:
Thus, it is possible to say that the LOWTEV system would be an efficient tool for food industrials to help them meet their innovation trends especially the one for health as it would help them produce healthier products, without chemical treatments and following a sustainable behavior.
From the ethics point of view, this system is a good thing as it supports a sustainable behaviour, what has become important nowadays.
In European policies, an important place was reserved for the Research and Development (R & D) policy.
The first phase of LOWTEV II project co-financed under the European support for R & D has helped gain knowledge about the coupling of low pressure and ultrasonic water, which opens up new opportunities for the use of Ultrasounds in the field of agribusiness.
The LOWTEV II project continued in a demonstration project that allows exploiting the results of research to develop a market application.
The design of the developed product will be patented and therefore positioned in a niche market where competition will not be a problem at the start. In addition, cleaning and decontamination of conveyor belts are critical points in the food processing environment and cannot be omitted.
As explained earlier, environment has become a core issue due to climate change and the subject of strategies to implement the objectives and with time, best knowledge allowed targeting and warning more particularly business fields where wasteful water practices can be changed.
Several strategies like the EU Sustainable Development strategy of 2001 or the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development have been set up
The Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy Action Plan includes a series of proposals on sustainable consumption an production that will contribute to improving the environmental performance of products and increase the demand for more sustainable goods and production technologies
List of Websites:
http://lowtev.sinaptec.fr/
SINAPTEC Carine Joutel cjoutel@sinaptec.fr
HIMBER TECHNOLOGIES Jean-Marie Ridez jean-marie.ridez@himbertechno.com
FRAI S EMBAL Jean Charles Lambelin jclambelin@frais-embal.fr
NARPAK Emine IDIS emineidis@narpak.com.tr
NEOGEN Pauline Titchener p.titchener@neogeneurope.com
DALEHEADS Nick Hart Nick.Hart@dalehead.co.uk
Europe needs a sustainable approach to water resource management, focusing on conserving water and using it more efficiently. Within the EU 27, over 247,000 million m3 of water is used every year (NEWCRONOS, Eurostat 2002). Approximately 15% of this is accounted for by industry which equates to 37,050 million m3/year. The food processing industry is a major contributor to water-abstraction, specifically drinking-quality water.
It has been underlined by the European Commission that given the increase world demand for and pressure on natural resources, existing technologies are not adequate to safeguard sustainable development in the long term. Reports on water use vary depending on country; however, the EU has identified a potential 30 - 65% saving on water use within the food processing industry (AcTeon, 2007). Industrials, proposing advanced technologies, identified potential alternative solutions to water efficient cleaning and sanitization in the food industry.
Engineering experts and food industrials gathered around the LOWTEV Low Temperature & Lean Volume Cleaning System project. It was a 2 year €1.1m project supported by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission. Four European countries were represented to deliver a system capable of reducing water consumption used during conveyor belt cleaning within the Food processing and manufacturing sectors. This project consortium worked towards the development of a novel automated cleaning system which would reduce the levels of giveaway associated with food-processing cleaning practices particularly water and energy consumption.
By acquiring new knowledge around the coupling of ultrasound with low water pressure delivery, a novel CIP system was developed which is effective without the use of heated water or chemical detergents for most applications, otherwise a small volume of chemical is used to enhance the effects of the ultrasounds. The technology delivers effective CIP against biofilms, bacteria and foodstuff contamination (including allergenic proteins) with reduction in water consumption, energy requirements and labour compared to standard methods. Other benefits include an integrated hygiene monitoring system to ensure sufficient cleaning resulting in improved health and safety records, reduced downtime due to cleaning and reduced labour costs. This system is now being developed in the LOWTEV II project, second phase of the LOWTEV project aiming at getting a marketable product by 2014. The final consumer will have the possibility to consume better quality products.
Project Context and Objectives:
The purpose of the LOWTEV II project has been to develop an ultrasound cleaning in place machine to clean conveyor belts of the food industry without chemical or nearly with no chemicals.
Engineering experts and food industrials collaborated on this subject. The contribution of food industrials (Frais Embal, Dalehead Foods, Narpak) from different food sectors ( fresh fish, meat and fruits) and from different countries (France, England and Turkey) permitted to the manufacturing partners to identify risks from and to bring out great principles to follow in order to meet food industrial needs: a mobile system to be able to move it for cleaning for example, an easy to use so the industrial can install/uninstall it easily, a compact system so that it can slide into bulk, a universal system to be affordable by SMEs as food industry is composed for the most of SMEs.
The European scope of this project is embodied first by the origins of the partners involved in the project. To reach other European countries, different of partner’s origins, the manufacturing partners defined an action plan. First, the manufacturing partners decided to focus on a limited number of countries: France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom for different reasons. Secondly, the partners selected five food sectors high water consumers and likely to be interested: Meat processing, fish processing, fruits and vegetables processing, bakery processing, and confectionary processing.
There were already expressions of interest for the project from food industrials in the food sectors selected, what tends to confirm the relevance of the choices made and confirmed the interest of the technology by final users as they will have the possibility to eat better quality products.
This project meets the objectives of different actors: the reduction of water use meets the will of the Authorities, the fact that industrials will have an ergonomic and efficient machine while realizing savings meets their objectives, and the consumer will have available better quality food products for its great pleasure.
Project Results:
PRINCIPLE:
The principle of the system developed is a Continuous cleaning system for conveyor belts in the food industry using ultrasound in presence of water
TYPE OF BELT:
The types of belts treated with this system can be smooth belts or modular belts.
WIDTH OF BELT:
2 widths are proposed:
≤40 cm
≤60 cm
Beyond these dimensions, a specific tank has to be developepd.
ULTRASOUND FREQUENCY:
The ultrasounds frequencies available and validated for cleaning by SinapTec are:
28 kHz or 40 kHz
QUANTITY OF WATER IN THE BATH:
The ultrasonic bath of the system contains approximately 5 L of water
WATER FLOW IN THE ULTRASONIC TANK:
The water flow of the system is 0.3 L / min
RENIEWING OF WATER IN THE BATH:
With a water flow of 0.3 L/min, the water bath is renewed every 15 min
CONVEYOR RUN SPEED:
The conveyor speed tested is 5m/min
OVERALL DIMENSIONS:
The trolley dimensions are max L 1270- H 960- W 450mm
NECESSARY DIMENSION UNDER THE CONVEYOR:
The necessary place available under the system is 917 mm.
WEIGHT:
The weight of the system is around 75 kg, easy to move as it is concept with rollers.
ELECTRICAL CABINET– 2000W generator:
Electrical cabinet at the beginning of the project Electrical cabinet on the industrial version
At the beginning of the project the electrical cabinet was more bulky because the system needed three 500W generators but to reduce its size and manufacturing costs, SinapTec developed the 2000W generator so now there is only one more powerful generator instead of three.
It is not possible to provide more information on the prototype in this report as it is planned to patent the system.
Potential Impact:
The LOWTEV system is at the cross roads of several EU priorities namely making of the Union an innovation union, enhancing SMEs competitiveness and develop a sustainable behavior.
Moreover, from our analyses it appears that the system has potential on its market and would meet both the industrials needs, as its use would allow savings of water, energy and chemicals, and thus allow money savings. It would also allow meet the customer’s needs thanks to the delivery of a best product in terms of health and aspect. The use of the LOWTEV system would also help the industries to comply with the EU water regulation.
The system developed also meets a European issue very present, the exploitation of the results of Research to lead to market applications and products.
The LOWTEV system complies with safety norms and standards applicable for the food and drink sector.
From a political point of view, the LOWTEV system meets several EU policies: Europe makes its most to encourage industries and European countries to invest in innovation.
A new plan has been adopted in 2010, the “Europe 2020 strategy” to manage the development of the European Research Area.
In this new strategy, Europe defines priorities to invest in, and the knowledge and innovation field is one of the key sectors highlighted through the “Innovation Union” flagship initiative. Europe defines the target of a 3% investment of countries GDP in research, development and innovation.
Europe’s support is reflected through the Framework Program financial tool. This program finances both research and development activities and the product developed by the LOWTEV II project was supported by the 7th Framework Program and thus inserts in the European priority regarding research and development.
The product developed in the LOWTEV II project addresses the food and drink industry which is comprised for 99.1% of SMEs. The LOWTEV II project aims at developing a system suitable for food and drink companies but also affordable by SMEs as the main target of this market are SMEs.
By delivering an innovative system affordable both by SMEs and large industries, the LOWTEV II consortium acts in favor of equal competitiveness among Food and Drink actors. By allowing SMEs to be competitive, this equates to allowing the creation of job opportunities and create turnover for companies. Moreover, this will also help European food and drink sector to be more competitive facing other countries and increase the EU R&D investment compared to other countries.
The EU Sustainable Development Strategy was first set up in 2001. Followed in 2002 a World Summit on Sustainable Development which aimed at setting up national plans and programs on sustainable consumption and production. The EU contribution to this plan was published in 2008 and is called the “Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy Action Plan”. Thanks to our innovative CIP system, it will be possible to achieve water and energy consumption reductions thus meeting the sustainable requirements.
From an economic point of view, and as explained by the FoodDrinkEurope president, Jesus Sarafin Pérez, in his foreword of the Competitiveness Report 2012, “the EU Food and Drink industry is a veritable pillar of the EU economy”. It is Europe’s largest manufacturing sector both in terms of turnover with €956 billion, and in terms of employment with the creation of 4.1 million jobs.
The Food Processing Industry is a market of 287 000 companies of which 99.1% are SMEs and is divided in several food sectors as shown below:
Each of these sectors is addressed by the system developed in this project provided that the process uses belts.
As explained in the Competitiveness Report 2012, the EU food and Drink industry lags behind its international competitors in terms of labor productivity and competitiveness.
The LOWTEV system is an efficient cleaning solution allowing water consumption and energy savings. To water savings, can be added energy savings thanks to the use of low temperature water and chemicals savings as the system has proved efficient cleaning without using chemicals. The LOWTEV system also allows increasing productivity as cleaning is achieved during production and avoids loosing time stopping production to achieve cleaning.
So, by investing in the LOWTEV system companies would increase their productivity and make savings.
The LOWTEV system aims at making easier workers life as it achieves cleaning during production and doesn’t require cleaning it manually. Operators work will be less painful as, added to that, the system has been developed to be easy to move either to the cleaning zone or to another line , and also easy to dissemble and reassemble. To turn it on, it will only require pressing a button, so as to turn it off. Given all these elements, it is likely that the system will be well appreciated among operators working on the line.
By allowing cost savings, the system will be also an opportunity for the company to reinvest savings in the creation of new jobs and thus make the company grow.
From the point of view of food innovation trends, food industrials innovate on 15 trends of which health (natural, medical, vegetal) as illustrated by the picture below:
Thus, it is possible to say that the LOWTEV system would be an efficient tool for food industrials to help them meet their innovation trends especially the one for health as it would help them produce healthier products, without chemical treatments and following a sustainable behavior.
From the ethics point of view, this system is a good thing as it supports a sustainable behaviour, what has become important nowadays.
In European policies, an important place was reserved for the Research and Development (R & D) policy.
The first phase of LOWTEV II project co-financed under the European support for R & D has helped gain knowledge about the coupling of low pressure and ultrasonic water, which opens up new opportunities for the use of Ultrasounds in the field of agribusiness.
The LOWTEV II project continued in a demonstration project that allows exploiting the results of research to develop a market application.
The design of the developed product will be patented and therefore positioned in a niche market where competition will not be a problem at the start. In addition, cleaning and decontamination of conveyor belts are critical points in the food processing environment and cannot be omitted.
As explained earlier, environment has become a core issue due to climate change and the subject of strategies to implement the objectives and with time, best knowledge allowed targeting and warning more particularly business fields where wasteful water practices can be changed.
Several strategies like the EU Sustainable Development strategy of 2001 or the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development have been set up
The Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy Action Plan includes a series of proposals on sustainable consumption an production that will contribute to improving the environmental performance of products and increase the demand for more sustainable goods and production technologies
List of Websites:
http://lowtev.sinaptec.fr/
SINAPTEC Carine Joutel cjoutel@sinaptec.fr
HIMBER TECHNOLOGIES Jean-Marie Ridez jean-marie.ridez@himbertechno.com
FRAI S EMBAL Jean Charles Lambelin jclambelin@frais-embal.fr
NARPAK Emine IDIS emineidis@narpak.com.tr
NEOGEN Pauline Titchener p.titchener@neogeneurope.com
DALEHEADS Nick Hart Nick.Hart@dalehead.co.uk