Innovative solutions for the optimization of heat transfer processes in food industry

Heat transfer processes play a key role in food industry for ensuring both the safety and the organoleptic quality of the final product. Thermal treatments, in specific, are involved in pasteurization, sterilization, cooling and cooking operations of the raw materials for ensuring not only the shelf-life of foodstuffs and, consequently, the safety of the consumer, but also the sensory quality of the final product. These processes represent the 75% of the energy portion used by the entire sector and, for this reason, their optimization should be considered and provided not only for increasing the food safety and quality but also for reducing energy consumption, related costs and reducing the environmental pollution in this field. In this thesis, the author is focused on exploiting different passive approaches for the improvement of both the energy efficiency and the effectiveness of heat transfer operations involved in three different food production processes. The good results obtained in the three different cases studied revealed this kind of approach very promising and adaptable for the aim proposed, suggesting innovative strategies for the optimization of the thermal aspects of the sector.