Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:Any producer in the food or the pharmaceutical industry who wishes to build a continuous process form the primary target audience. This section of the audience will be reached through publications in trade journals and through direct interactions at trade shows. The second audience includes scientists who work in the field of particulate flow. This audience will be reached through publications in scientific journals. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A graduate stdent learned to use X-Ray based particulate mass flux sensors. A prototype version sold to Purdue University has been used to train several graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A thesis has been completed by a Purdue graduate student. It will be disseminated shortly. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The four accomplishments are: 1) A method has been successfully developed to determine the linear attenuation coefficient of a solid material such as container filled with food particles. 2) A method has been developed that provides reliable determination of the porosity or void space in a material (such as a food product). In this method, the machine can make this measurement regardless of the sample holder material so long as X-rays can still pass through the holder. 3) A method has been developed to obtain a reliable measurement of the moisture content of a solid or liquid material (such as a food product). However, the linear attenuation coefficients for water do not match the NIST values when the sample holder is less than 30 mm in diameter, which requires the user to calibrate the energy absorbed based on the sample holder size. 4) A particulate mass flux meter has been developed and commercialized.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A graduate student got trained on the use of the X-Ray diffraction meter. A scientist at En'Urga Inc. got trained on the calibrationof X-Ray particulate mass flux sensor. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? The following tasks will be completed during the next report period. 1. Completion of the study of beam hardening effects on flow rate readings 2. Determination of any features of the CT scanner may result in incorrect apparent density calculations, and modify mathematical model accordingly, 3. Development of a mathematical model which can determine the mass fraction of each component in a mixture of n number of unique products. To achieve this goal, experiments will focus on standard readings with deionized water and powder mixtures to determine whether the model is precise enough to determine the mass fraction of homogenous solid mixtures. 4. Continue in-house calibration and evaluation of the mass flux sensor 5. Field evaluation of the sensor 6. Preparation of the final Phase II report.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the Phase II research, five tasks are required to meet the stated technical objectives. The five tasks are: (1) develop a prototype laboratory (pre-commercial stage) system that address beam hardening and X-Ray safety issues, (2) obtain X-ray diffraction measurements from several common food ingredient; (2) study the effects of beam hardening on single and multi-component particulate flow, (4) validate the system in a laboratory setting, and (5) validate the system at a test bench with an industrial partner. The progress made in each one of these tasks is provided below. The first task of the Phase II work is to develop a prototype system that can be ported for field installation at our customer site. The instrument that was used during the Phase I work was housed in a lead lined room, 12 x 12 x 8. Even though the sensor and the arrays are enclosed in a lead lined box, the insertion of the feeder and the conveyor belt necessitated the removal of the top panel of the box. Therefore, the X-Rays leak out of the system and all measurements had to be completed in the lead lined room. During this task, the enclosure of the source and the arrays was redesigned so that the X-Rays do not have a direct path of exposure to the outside area. The design was completed and the prototype unit was fabricated during the first six months of the project. This completed the first task of the Phase II work. The second task was to obtain X-ray diffraction measurements from the common food grains and ingredients. There are two outcomes that are sought from these measurements. The X-ray diffraction measurements will provide the mass absorption coefficient of the food ingredients as a function of beam energy. This will enable an accurate modeling of the beam hardening effects associated with different food ingredients. The X-ray measurements will also identify two or three optimal energy levels for obtaining mass flux measurements in a multi-component particulate flow. In order to accomplish this goal, it will be necessary to obtain X-Ray extinction data taken at different energy levels as well as generating a database of XRD patterns of the commonly used food ingredients. Extinciton data was obtained for several food ingredients using the XRD at Purdue Univeristy. Each material was purchased from a local grocery store. The materials were first crushed with a rolling pin, to ensure that the particle sizes were small enough for the diffractometer to detect reflection peaks with minimal noise. The purpose of these experiments was to explore the difference between amorphous and crystalline food materials. As mentioned previously in this report, there is a distinct difference between amorphous and crystalline solids. Based on the data and XRPD diffraction patterns, provided in the appendix of this document, the most crystalline powders examined are sugars, sucrose, fructose, and glucose. Grains, including the bleached flour and tapioca flour, exhibit amorphous behavior, but do have several discernable peaks. Grains do not exhibit truly crystalline or amorphous structures, and have a calculated crystallinity of roughly 30%. The amorphous structures are most likely a result of the milling processes to produce flour. Proteins and milk products, however, are probably the most amorphous food powder available. Casein, in particular, exhibits a long "peak region" with the highest point at 2θ=20. The non-fat milk solids show a similar peak pattern, which is evidence that casein is a large component of the mixture. Oddly enough, there are no major peaks that relate to the vitamin A and D additions. However, more experiments need to be completed to confirm that there are no vitamin peaks. One noticeable similarity for all amorphous solids on this particular machine is that they exhibit a maximum peak around 20-23 2θ; whether this is noise from the machine, or if amorphous materials simply have this all in common, remains to be seen in future experiments. The third task was to theoretically model and experimental determine beam hardening effects on different food materials so that the sensor can be used to study the mass flux of food particles ranging from a few kg/hour to a few tons/hour. The experimental and theoretical modeling of beam hardening is currently being conducted and the results will be provided in the next report. The fourth task is the in-house calibration and evaluation of the system. For this task, the first subtask was to build a small feeder that can be used for flowing different material at a very steady rate through the mass flux sensor.Three food ingredients were flowed through the system and the feeder was claibrated. The calibration shows a very linear relationship between the speed of the motor and the flow rate of each ingredient.
Publications
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