Bringing hydrodynamic cavitation powered beer-brewing from the pilot to the industrial scale: challenges and solutions

challenges and solutions Many innovative technologies fail in the face of challenges related to their transition from the laboratory or pilot scale to the industrial one. Such challenges are particularly severe in the field of food processing due to issues such as reliability and safety of the equipment, synchronization and automation of processes, and safety of the consumer products. A novel technology and related method for beer-brewing, based upon controlled hydrodynamic cavitation, was first developed and tested at the pilot scale of 250 L, then brought to the industrial scale of 12 hL and complemented with all the necessary devices such as an advanced liquid-solid separation unit, a cleaning-in-place system, and an electronic control panel managing the mashing and hopping stages of the brewing process. The industrial-grade system, under the name of CAVIBEER, first underwent an intensive optimization phase aimed at minimizing vibrations and noise, then was successfully tested to check the functionality of the processes chain, as well as the repeatability of the results achieved at the pilot scale, the reproducibility of any beer recipe, and the comparative performances with respect to conventional devices.