Technical Papers and Presentations

Ohmic heating (Joule heating) is a volumetric heating technology which can effectively process almost any pumpable fluid with extremely high energy efficiency (>95%). This is particularly useful for very thick fluids, those that burn on to hot surfaces and those with high solids content which would cause difficulties for conventional heating techniques. Processing of animal by-products (ABP) faces all these challenges. The material must be heat treated to make it safe, a process which normally takes hours.

By using the COMSOL Multiphysics® capability for combining the physics modules of fluid flow, Joule heating and heat conduction we were able to evolve the design of an ABP ohmic sterilization system, thereby significantly reduced complexity, cost and maintenance requirements of the system.