Problem being addressed:
Ohmic heating is an alternative fast heating method for food and beverage products that results in less thermal damage than conventional heating. The technology offers market advantages such as rapid uniform heating, reduced surface fouling, high energy efficiency and high-quality food products. It has potential to be dominant in the food processing industry, but its full commercial opportunity has been hindered by technical deficiencies such as electrode design problems, inefficient pump design, and lack of control in electrical conductivity. Ohmic heating currently processes around 8% of global fruit and vegetable production, but if the technical incapacities are solved, it has the potential to process over 35% of this sector's requirements, creating a market opportunity of €85 billion.
Societal Importance:
Successful implementation of the OHFASTT objective will help to realise a new commercially attractive technology to the EU and global markets. Food processing companies will benefit reductions in processing time and a greater price value for their products that will bring to bear signifacnt customer annual savings per installation compared to conventional installations. There will be assocaited sustanibility benefits from widespread adoption of ohmic technology by way of reductions on energy use, energy costs and CO2 emissions. Consumers could also benefit from improvements in quality and vitamin retention possibilities.
Overall Objectives of the OHFASTT Project:
- To evaluate and quantify the target markets for ohmic heating solution across Europe and globally, helping us to develop strategic market penetration strategies for our ohmic technology.
- To assess and validate the fitness for operational of the modular technical components of the system.
- To conduct a technology watch to determine the Ohmic heating technology under development, the specifications of the current technology and the dynamics of the current technology landscape, supporting the development of an IPR strategy for the protectable results and the appropriate exploitation routes.
- To develop an OHFASTT business plan detailing our funding requirements, commercialisation route, key partners and our financial growth projections over a 5 year period.
