ACOcheese- increase efficiency in cheese-production with acoustic spectroscopy

Important results from the project

Acosense, Norrmejerier and Fraunhofer Chalmers Centre Industrial Mathematics (FCC) have during the project successfully investigated how to describe the coagulation process of cheese with active acoustic spectroscopy. The goal was to create an analysis tool that identifies the optimum point in time to stop the process within ±30 sec and by that increase the total amount of cheese derived by 1 %. Another goal was to get in deep knowledge within the dairy industry and identify more value-positions for an analysis tools to increase efficiency within the process.

Expected long term effects

The project has created an analysis tool that is adopted for vat installations and can be used within the food industry. The instrument can follow the coagulation process with an accuracy of ±3 min which is more than the project goal of ±30 sec. The project has therefore not increased the total amount of cheese by 1 % in Norrmejeriers production as defined in the project goal. Acosense and Norrmejerier have identified more value positions within the process which Acosense has successfully verified. FCC has strengthened its competence within continuous processes.

Approach and implementation

The project had a good structure in order to work within the project towards expected results within the timeline presented. All pre-studies and research that has been done prior to the project did unfortunately not show the difficulties in identifying significant sound changes towards the end of the coagulation process. Therefore, a lot of time was spent to evaluate components included in coagulation, sound response, potential noise sources as well as more sophisticated methods to detect sound changes. This research led to a delay in the project of more than 6 month.