A Novel Elevated Pressure Sonication Process for Dairy, Food and Drink Pasteurisation

This project aims to develop a novel elevated pressure sonication process for dairy, food and drink pasteurisation requiring lower temperatures and offering a 20-fold reductions in energy usage compared to HTST and UHT. Pasteurisation is an essential process stage in Dairy, Juice, Brewery processing. Two main techniques are used High Temperature Short Time (HTST) and Ultra High Temperature (UHT). Both are effective in extending Dairy and beverages product shelf-life. However, a by-product from Dairy processing cannot technically or cost effectively be pasteurised using these techniques. This by-product is highly bacterially unstable and is disposed of as waste costing, depending on dairy size, between £100k and £1m per annum. This project aims to offer a new process to effectively pasteurise the Dairy by-product and other food and beverage products generating high value products and significantly reducing energy usage and reducing waste disposal costs.