Further information is provided on the ' Encongro ' page. Evaporators and spray dryers are used in the dairy industry in the production of milk powder. Moisture is first evaporated off the milk and the ramaining product then further dries at high temperature to produce granules of milk powder. The control of temperature and various other important process variables are vital to this very sensitive and critical process. Accurate control of the process variables can have considerable advantages in terms of both product quality and energy savings.
Pasteurisation is a vital process in the dairy industry.
It is important that certain bacteria be eliminated in order to increase the shelf-life of milk and make it suitable for certain purposes, including other downstream processes. However, pasteurisation is also very energy consuming, and the goal of the project is to develop advanced control strategies which will improve the performance of the pasteurisation control loop, particularly with regard to energy saving. This project will develop a mathematical model of the pasteurisation process using data-based techniques using neural networks as a modelling tool. This project is being carried out in conjunction with the Avonmore Waterford Group and the Food Engineering Department at University College Cork.