Production of Concentrated Fresh Milk Products. This project focuses on developing production processes for concentrated fresh milk ingredients for the international market. Ultrafiltration of whole milk solutions will be extended to maximise the product protein concentration. Electrodialysis and nanofiltration will be tailored to separate salts from lactose and produce 'designer' products with minimum wastage and energy consumption. Production of lactitol from dairy lactose, a potential new man ....Production of Concentrated Fresh Milk Products. This project focuses on developing production processes for concentrated fresh milk ingredients for the international market. Ultrafiltration of whole milk solutions will be extended to maximise the product protein concentration. Electrodialysis and nanofiltration will be tailored to separate salts from lactose and produce 'designer' products with minimum wastage and energy consumption. Production of lactitol from dairy lactose, a potential new manufacturing operation for Australia, will be assessed. This project will result in diversion of quality ingredients from commodity markets to products with significant added value. The Korumburra region will benefit financially and socially from expansion in the local dairy industry.
Read moreRead less
Optimising Removal of Proteinaceous Foulants from Membranes. Removal of proteinacous foulants from membrane systems imposes both significant economic costs in terms of chemical usage as well as significant environmental costs in terms of water usage and production of effluents from the cleaning and rinsing waters. The outcome of this project should allow us to develop methods for the prediction and optimisation of membrane cleaning performance of relevance to major Australian industries includin ....Optimising Removal of Proteinaceous Foulants from Membranes. Removal of proteinacous foulants from membrane systems imposes both significant economic costs in terms of chemical usage as well as significant environmental costs in terms of water usage and production of effluents from the cleaning and rinsing waters. The outcome of this project should allow us to develop methods for the prediction and optimisation of membrane cleaning performance of relevance to major Australian industries including the dairy, food processing and water and waste water treatment industries.Read moreRead less
Food structure design. Food structure design. This project aims to use fundamental studies in multi-scale rheology and biotribology, surface sciences, soft matter physics and protein chemistry to develop new measurement capabilities and knowledge for rational food structure design. This research is intended to enable researchers and industry to quantify how oral processing (including saliva) transforms food during consumption, and to provide new instrumental measurements and know-how that assist ....Food structure design. Food structure design. This project aims to use fundamental studies in multi-scale rheology and biotribology, surface sciences, soft matter physics and protein chemistry to develop new measurement capabilities and knowledge for rational food structure design. This research is intended to enable researchers and industry to quantify how oral processing (including saliva) transforms food during consumption, and to provide new instrumental measurements and know-how that assists in defining sensory percepts in dairy foods and beverages such as creaminess in full, reduced or non-fat systems and grittiness in high protein systems.Read moreRead less
Understanding and Controlling Wall Deposition in Spray Dryers via Experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Studies. A key problem in operating spray dryers for producing milk powders and other consumer products, such as detergents, is the occurrence of internal wall deposits of powder, leading to thermal degradation of the products and potential fire hazards. However, no fundamental theory has been applied in spray dryers to allow this process to be controlled. The proposed project wi ....Understanding and Controlling Wall Deposition in Spray Dryers via Experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Studies. A key problem in operating spray dryers for producing milk powders and other consumer products, such as detergents, is the occurrence of internal wall deposits of powder, leading to thermal degradation of the products and potential fire hazards. However, no fundamental theory has been applied in spray dryers to allow this process to be controlled. The proposed project will use state-of-the-art experimental and computational techniques to gain a fundamental understanding of this phenomenon and will develop a validated wall deposition model to predict when and to what extent this process occurs, to give higher throughputs and/or more efficient systems.Read moreRead less
Improving Powder Properties by Using Spray Dryers to Process Amorphous Components of Solids into Crystalline Materials. Australia has a large food and dairy processing industry, capturing 13% of the world dairy export market, worth US$460 million annually. This proposal will build on Australia's strengths in dairy and food industries, particularly milk powder products. This project will enhance our competitive advantage in the production of dried foodstuffs by streamlining their production and ....Improving Powder Properties by Using Spray Dryers to Process Amorphous Components of Solids into Crystalline Materials. Australia has a large food and dairy processing industry, capturing 13% of the world dairy export market, worth US$460 million annually. This proposal will build on Australia's strengths in dairy and food industries, particularly milk powder products. This project will enhance our competitive advantage in the production of dried foodstuffs by streamlining their production and allowing tailored and new powder products to be created.Read moreRead less
Multiscale viscoelastic lubrication of soft matter systems. The project aims to develop new principles of viscoelastic lubrication in soft contacts. New insights into friction behaviour arising from complex fluid-substrate interactions are expected to be generated using techniques and interdisciplinary approaches that bridge rheology, tribology and surface science. The intended outcome is a lubrication model that interprets the contribution of viscoelastic effects occurring across multiple lengt ....Multiscale viscoelastic lubrication of soft matter systems. The project aims to develop new principles of viscoelastic lubrication in soft contacts. New insights into friction behaviour arising from complex fluid-substrate interactions are expected to be generated using techniques and interdisciplinary approaches that bridge rheology, tribology and surface science. The intended outcome is a lubrication model that interprets the contribution of viscoelastic effects occurring across multiple length and time scales. This should provide significant benefits to diverse fields including advanced materials and complex fluids, engineering tribology, bio-lubrication and food structure design.Read moreRead less
Dynamic input adjustment to improve the stability of transient swirling flows in spray dryers. This project will use leading-edge numerical techniques to advance the science of flow stabilisation using dynamic flow modulation techniques. Improved sustainable processing will be enabled using this flow modulation in spray dryers to reduce processing problems due to the depositon of particles on dryer walls.
Enabling the design of superior healthy snack foods and beverages through innovative assessment of oral processing and mucosal film interactions. Reducing sugar and fat in foods generally leads to products that are perceived as less flavoursome and appealing. A significant contributor to this is the interaction of foods and beverages with oral mucosal substrates, which play a key role in perceptual processes that drive unacceptable mouthfeel sensations. This project seeks to develop and use oral ....Enabling the design of superior healthy snack foods and beverages through innovative assessment of oral processing and mucosal film interactions. Reducing sugar and fat in foods generally leads to products that are perceived as less flavoursome and appealing. A significant contributor to this is the interaction of foods and beverages with oral mucosal substrates, which play a key role in perceptual processes that drive unacceptable mouthfeel sensations. This project seeks to develop and use oral mimetic substrates to permit objective and quantified rheological and tribological responses, imitating the underlying physics occurring during food oral processing that drive dynamic sensory responses. The project aims to enable a mechanism-based approach to minimise the amounts of fat, salt and sugar required for sensory properties that meet consumer expectations.Read moreRead less
Plant based foods: Towards sustainable and acceptable meat analogues. The project aims to address the need for engineering plant-based food products to deliver a sensory experience akin to meat. The project expects to generate new knowledge on the structural drivers for emulating meat-like texture and taste within burger products. Expected outcomes of this project include new ingredients and food characterisation methodologies, including rheology and sensory, which can be employed in rational ....Plant based foods: Towards sustainable and acceptable meat analogues. The project aims to address the need for engineering plant-based food products to deliver a sensory experience akin to meat. The project expects to generate new knowledge on the structural drivers for emulating meat-like texture and taste within burger products. Expected outcomes of this project include new ingredients and food characterisation methodologies, including rheology and sensory, which can be employed in rational food structure design. This should provide significant benefits in enhancing the consumer acceptance of plant-based foods that is required to support the rapidly growing market opportunity for them and sustainable food production.Read moreRead less
Engineering biomimetic lubrication with mucin. Engineering coatings for water to be an effective lubricant is a significant challenge. The project seeks to emulate how nature builds highly lubricating water-rich polymer films on biological surfaces. This is intended to be achieved by directing the self-assembly of mucin macromolecules onto polymer brushes attached to a substrate, and then cross-linking the constituents to obtain a hydrated gel-like lubricating coating. This research is expected ....Engineering biomimetic lubrication with mucin. Engineering coatings for water to be an effective lubricant is a significant challenge. The project seeks to emulate how nature builds highly lubricating water-rich polymer films on biological surfaces. This is intended to be achieved by directing the self-assembly of mucin macromolecules onto polymer brushes attached to a substrate, and then cross-linking the constituents to obtain a hydrated gel-like lubricating coating. This research is expected to provide new insights on the mechanisms by which mucin-rich fluids lubricate and protect biosurfaces, which is important to human health, nutrition and well-being. It may also lead to new discoveries for engineering surface coatings for biomaterials and nanomaterials.Read moreRead less