Project description
High-power ultrasound prevents honey crystallisation
Honey can turn from liquid to a semi-solid state, becoming cloudy, thick and grainy, resulting in the product being rejected by retailers. To prevent this phenomenon, known as honey crystallisation, from occurring, packers must first pasteurise honey destined for retail. Unfortunately, the high temperatures involved during the treatment causes serious degradation to most nutritive and beneficial substances in the honey. The EU-funded ViscoUS project will address this challenge by designing and manufacturing high-power ultrasound transducers suitable for highly viscous products such as honey. The technology, which reduces the content of sugar crystals whilst retaining all the nutrients contained in raw honey, can also be applied to other highly viscous products such as chocolate, ice creams, vegetable purees or sauces.
Objective
Honey crystallization is a natural phenomenon by which honey turns from liquid to a semi-solid state, becoming cloud, thick and grainy. Generally, consumers prefer liquid honey. They do not buy crystallized honey jars in supermarkets. So, if honey crystallizes within the shops before being sold, the retailers has the right to return it to the honey packer, with all associated costs. To avoid these reimbursements, honey packers are forced to pasteurize honey destined to retail. During pasteurization, raw honey is heated at 75-80ºC for 1-3 minutes to melt the sugar crystals, which act as nuclei starting points for crystallization. Unfortunately, such elevated temperature during the treatment causes serious degradation in most nutritive and beneficial substances that have categorized honey as a healthy medicinal food throughout the centuries. The result is that the clear liquid honey we are consuming is little different from a mix of sugars syrup.
SonicatSystems is a technology-based company that have developed LIQUAM, a patented technology based on High Power Ultrasound for the respectful honey processing. With LIQUAM is possible to reduce the initial content of sugar crystals up to pasteurization levels, whilst retaining all nutrients contained in raw honey. However, to commercialize it, we need to increase their effiency and reduce manufacturing costs. Our innovative approach is to design and manufacture optimized ultrasound transducers well suited for highly viscous products such as honey due to commercial transducers are only optimized for applications involving water or low viscosity products. To this end, we need to incorporate an expert in ultrasound and vibro-acoustics technology. Our innovation strategy goes beyond. We want to use the knowledge acquired to apply High Power Ultrasound at industrial level to other highly viscous products such as chocolate, ice creams, vegetable purees or sauces.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture vegetable growing
- natural sciences physical sciences acoustics ultrasound
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.2.3.2.2. - Enhancing the innovation capacity of SMEs
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
CSA-LSP - Coordination and support action Lump sum
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-INNOSUP-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08907 HOSPITALET DE LLOBREGAT
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.