Final Report Summary - LOWTEV (Low temperature and lean volume cleaning system)
Low temperature and lean volume cleaning system
LOWTEV is a two year EUR 1.1 million project supported by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Commission (EC). The project brings together food science and engineering expertise from four European countries to deliver a system capable of reducing water consumption used during conveyor belt cleaning within the food processing and manufacturing sectors.
The problem being addressed
Under the current issues surrounding climate change, conserving water resources is becoming an increasing priority. As areas around the globe, including Europe, become stressed due to water exploitation or environmental pressures, the amount of water resources available for use is decreasing (World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 1999). It is crucial to protect and improve water consumption to provide a sustainable practice for economic development and maintenance of human settlements.
LOWTEV will bring considerable water savings to the food industry which includes more than 230 000 small and medium sized enterprise (SME) organisations. By providing an alternative system for cleaning in place technology on bulk handling and conveyance equipment for food processors, the LOWTEV system aims to deliver benefits to factory sites would benefit from at least a 10 % savings in overall water use. This equates to an estimated EUR 30 000 worth of savings on water and energy bills per factory, providing a return on investment in under one year of installation.
Our consortium, including experts in food science, ultrasound and microbiology and have developed a low water, ultrasound device integrated with an automated rapid hygiene monitoring system.
Project context and objectives:
The food industry sector within Europe lags behind the rest of the world in terms of innovation and research and development (R&D) investment, particularly in the area of water use reduction. This project will address the environmental issues of improved water resource use and will also improve the competitiveness of the SME food processing and equipment manufacturing communities. Through reducing the clean cycle times on conveyor equipment, this will also increase productivity potential within the food processing cycle by reducing the labour costs and down times associated with cleaning.
Achieving low water usage in a cleaning in place (CIP) system would be a considerable cost saving. Ultrasound is commonly used to clean and sanitise disassembled equipment; however, dismantling and re-assembly of machinery is time consuming and not always practical for the food industry. New knowledge around the coupling of ultrasound with low water delivery has enabled the development of a novel CIP system effective with minimum water and chemical use.
The developed technology aims to deliver effective CIP against biofilms, bacteria and foodstuff contamination (including allergenic proteins) with reduction in water consumption, energy requirements and labour compared to standard methods. Early tests using cold water and no detergent have delivered results which already exceed common industry targets.
To validate the process the latter part of the project consisted of demonstration trials on site with end-users. During a further demonstration stage, a wider range of requirements and types of contamination will be incorporated into the validation programme by the inclusion of a broader spread of industry representatives. This will ensure a robust testing of the cleaning system.
Project results:
The main results derived from the project were ultrasound methodology; low water ultrasound device; sampling mechanism; integration plans; feedback control mechanism; progress and achievements.
Ongoing liaison with industry ensured that the project ws constantly directed towards delivering a novel and commercially viable technology which satisfies internal key performance indicators (KPIs) and enables food manufacturers to meet and exceed increasingly stringent environmental targets.
Early results were encouraging as the images below captured at 0, 6, 11 and 16 minute treatment times show. Results from the LOWTEV prototype were even better as shown by the 10 cm square sample images before and after treatment (Sample A: dried on, Sample B: freshly applied). The total treatment time for the dried on sample to achieve a visibly clean rating was 36 seconds, with the freshly applied sample taking only 20 seconds. In samples heavily contaminated with Bacterial strains including Pseudomonas spp. MF3600, Serratia marcescens MF3613, Serratia proteomaculans MF3626 and Staphylococcus simulans MF3625 reductions in excess of 99.9% of bacteria have been achieved.
Results and Impact of LOWTEV
The LOWTEV system provides fully automated cleaning in place and/or on line of single plain conveyors suitable for a variety of food and non-food applications. The results to date have successfully demonstrated that greater than 90 % reduction in bacterial load can be achieved by LOWTEV's novel use of ultrasound. This has the potential to greatly reduce non-food-processing water consumption.
1. Low temperature, low volume cleaning in place: uses less than 5 L of water per minute; industry average 20 L per minute.
2. Low operational downtime: conveyor belt no longer needs removing; interlock belts can now be cleaned in place.
3. Low foot print impact: fits under existing conveyor as retrofit; built in to new conveyors.
4. Exceeds food industry standard cleaning levels: shellfish industry standard less or equal to 1000 adenosine triphosphate (ATP); shellfish LOWTEV clean equal to 5 ATP.
The second year of the project saw the integration of the complete LOWTEV system and a period of end user validation trials will to establish system performance in a controlled environment.
Two patent applications have been drawn up, one for the cleaning system and one for the sampler, with the application for the cleaning system having been submitted in the United Kingdom (UK) in May 2011.
Potential impact:
The main impact of the project covers several areas.
It is environmental in that it offers the potential for the extraction of potable drinking water to be reduced from industry averages ranging from 12 to 20 litres per minute to LOWTEV levels of 1 to 5 L per minute.
It is socio-economic in that this reduction in manufacturing costs will have the effect of stabilising the price of food supplied from units using LOWTEV and increases the volumes of potable water available to society for consumption rather than industrial use.
The reduction in water use demonstrated represents a maximum potential reduction of 59 L (590 %) per minute.
European Union (EU) water consumption for non-process applications was shown to be approximately 2 787 500 000 m3 per annum with a value based on prices on the date of the research being approximately EUR 0.93 per m3.
Approximately 8 % of this non process water is used in cleaning. LOWTEV has potential to replace up to 5 % of all cleaning operations. So with a target market penetration revised to 3 % to reflect current markets.
This represents a total reduction of potable water usage of 334 500 litres at a value of EUR 3 101 085 during year three of sales.
Project website: http://pera/lowtev
LOWTEV is a two year EUR 1.1 million project supported by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Commission (EC). The project brings together food science and engineering expertise from four European countries to deliver a system capable of reducing water consumption used during conveyor belt cleaning within the food processing and manufacturing sectors.
The problem being addressed
Under the current issues surrounding climate change, conserving water resources is becoming an increasing priority. As areas around the globe, including Europe, become stressed due to water exploitation or environmental pressures, the amount of water resources available for use is decreasing (World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 1999). It is crucial to protect and improve water consumption to provide a sustainable practice for economic development and maintenance of human settlements.
LOWTEV will bring considerable water savings to the food industry which includes more than 230 000 small and medium sized enterprise (SME) organisations. By providing an alternative system for cleaning in place technology on bulk handling and conveyance equipment for food processors, the LOWTEV system aims to deliver benefits to factory sites would benefit from at least a 10 % savings in overall water use. This equates to an estimated EUR 30 000 worth of savings on water and energy bills per factory, providing a return on investment in under one year of installation.
Our consortium, including experts in food science, ultrasound and microbiology and have developed a low water, ultrasound device integrated with an automated rapid hygiene monitoring system.
Project context and objectives:
The food industry sector within Europe lags behind the rest of the world in terms of innovation and research and development (R&D) investment, particularly in the area of water use reduction. This project will address the environmental issues of improved water resource use and will also improve the competitiveness of the SME food processing and equipment manufacturing communities. Through reducing the clean cycle times on conveyor equipment, this will also increase productivity potential within the food processing cycle by reducing the labour costs and down times associated with cleaning.
Achieving low water usage in a cleaning in place (CIP) system would be a considerable cost saving. Ultrasound is commonly used to clean and sanitise disassembled equipment; however, dismantling and re-assembly of machinery is time consuming and not always practical for the food industry. New knowledge around the coupling of ultrasound with low water delivery has enabled the development of a novel CIP system effective with minimum water and chemical use.
The developed technology aims to deliver effective CIP against biofilms, bacteria and foodstuff contamination (including allergenic proteins) with reduction in water consumption, energy requirements and labour compared to standard methods. Early tests using cold water and no detergent have delivered results which already exceed common industry targets.
To validate the process the latter part of the project consisted of demonstration trials on site with end-users. During a further demonstration stage, a wider range of requirements and types of contamination will be incorporated into the validation programme by the inclusion of a broader spread of industry representatives. This will ensure a robust testing of the cleaning system.
Project results:
The main results derived from the project were ultrasound methodology; low water ultrasound device; sampling mechanism; integration plans; feedback control mechanism; progress and achievements.
Ongoing liaison with industry ensured that the project ws constantly directed towards delivering a novel and commercially viable technology which satisfies internal key performance indicators (KPIs) and enables food manufacturers to meet and exceed increasingly stringent environmental targets.
Early results were encouraging as the images below captured at 0, 6, 11 and 16 minute treatment times show. Results from the LOWTEV prototype were even better as shown by the 10 cm square sample images before and after treatment (Sample A: dried on, Sample B: freshly applied). The total treatment time for the dried on sample to achieve a visibly clean rating was 36 seconds, with the freshly applied sample taking only 20 seconds. In samples heavily contaminated with Bacterial strains including Pseudomonas spp. MF3600, Serratia marcescens MF3613, Serratia proteomaculans MF3626 and Staphylococcus simulans MF3625 reductions in excess of 99.9% of bacteria have been achieved.
Results and Impact of LOWTEV
The LOWTEV system provides fully automated cleaning in place and/or on line of single plain conveyors suitable for a variety of food and non-food applications. The results to date have successfully demonstrated that greater than 90 % reduction in bacterial load can be achieved by LOWTEV's novel use of ultrasound. This has the potential to greatly reduce non-food-processing water consumption.
1. Low temperature, low volume cleaning in place: uses less than 5 L of water per minute; industry average 20 L per minute.
2. Low operational downtime: conveyor belt no longer needs removing; interlock belts can now be cleaned in place.
3. Low foot print impact: fits under existing conveyor as retrofit; built in to new conveyors.
4. Exceeds food industry standard cleaning levels: shellfish industry standard less or equal to 1000 adenosine triphosphate (ATP); shellfish LOWTEV clean equal to 5 ATP.
The second year of the project saw the integration of the complete LOWTEV system and a period of end user validation trials will to establish system performance in a controlled environment.
Two patent applications have been drawn up, one for the cleaning system and one for the sampler, with the application for the cleaning system having been submitted in the United Kingdom (UK) in May 2011.
Potential impact:
The main impact of the project covers several areas.
It is environmental in that it offers the potential for the extraction of potable drinking water to be reduced from industry averages ranging from 12 to 20 litres per minute to LOWTEV levels of 1 to 5 L per minute.
It is socio-economic in that this reduction in manufacturing costs will have the effect of stabilising the price of food supplied from units using LOWTEV and increases the volumes of potable water available to society for consumption rather than industrial use.
The reduction in water use demonstrated represents a maximum potential reduction of 59 L (590 %) per minute.
European Union (EU) water consumption for non-process applications was shown to be approximately 2 787 500 000 m3 per annum with a value based on prices on the date of the research being approximately EUR 0.93 per m3.
Approximately 8 % of this non process water is used in cleaning. LOWTEV has potential to replace up to 5 % of all cleaning operations. So with a target market penetration revised to 3 % to reflect current markets.
This represents a total reduction of potable water usage of 334 500 litres at a value of EUR 3 101 085 during year three of sales.
Project website: http://pera/lowtev