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This day marks the launch of our new website to give our audience and followers a remarkably improved online presence. Built to keep you in tune with our news, events, and technology whilst also providing you with a comprehensive set of resources to help you understand the benefits of our cause.   The Consortium is proud of announcing that the final FCHR prototype has been implemented.
PROJECT RESULTS The Consortium is proud of announcing that the final FCHR prototype has been implemented; the system is now located in the dairy processing hall in the School of Food and Nutritional Science at University College of Cork (UCC) in Ireland, where tests on milk and juices are ongoing. Bacteria inactivation and homogenization effects are object of study and the results of the laboratory tests on the prototype confirm hydrocavitation to be an outstandingly promising and competitive technology for the companies operating in the Food and Beverage sector.  More efficient milk and juices pasteurization and homogenization thanks to space bubbles.
The ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Lazio start-up company Wixta exploits the particular hydrodynamic cavitation phenomenon. The cavitation is the formation of vapour cavities – small liquid-free "bubbles" in a liquid – that are the consequence of forces acting upon the liquid. They usually are formed when a liquid is subjected to rapid pressure changes. When put under a subsequent higher pressure the cavities collapse and release large amount of energy which can generate intense shock waves. This is most often an undesirable occurrence, in particular for mechanical machinery like propellers and pumps, where it causes a great deal of noise, possible damage to components, vibrations, and a loss of efficiency.  The EU Food & Drink Industry The EU food and drink industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the EU, with 965 billion turnover (about 15% of total manufacturing turnover) in 2008, about 310.000 companies and 4.4 million direct employees. In this sector, the SMEs account for the 99% of the companies involved. However, studies commissioned by the EC indicate that competitiveness of European food industry remains weak compared to US and Canada. Hydrodynamic Cavitation Hydrodynamic cavitation consists in the generation of huge amounts of energy in the form of shock waves, due to the turbulence produced in a fluid by pressure fluctuations.
The FCHR project proposes the implementation of an integrated pasteuriser and homogenizer for fluid foods based on an alternative approach induced only by mechanical means: hydrodynamic cavitation, which consists in the generation of huge amounts of energy in the form of shock waves, due to the turbulence produced in a fluid by pressure fluctuations. Opposite to currently studied alternatives, such as pulsed electric field or ultrasound cavitation, FCHR is highly scalable, due to the absence of electric field or ultrasound emitters.
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