At drinktec 2025, the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV will present three technology solutions that use AI, powerful software and newly developed contamination sensors to eliminate the problem of safety-related, systematic oversizing of cleaning processes in hygiene-critical areas such as heat exchangers, tanks, and pipelines.

The key to this is knowing when, where, and how much contamination is present and, based on this information, carrying out a precisely tailored cleaning process.

This reduces costly safety buffers in cleaning without compromising product safety, sig-nificantly saves valuable resources, and minimizes downtime.

All three solutions can be easily integrated into existing plants and systems.

 

»CoControl-FouliQ«

Predictively detect fouling in heat exchangers – increase safety and efficiency

High Protein = high cleaning effort?

The AI-supported monitoring system »CoControl-FouliQ« enables fouling to be detected in advance as it develops. This makes it particu-larly suitable for the manufacturing process of high-protein products that are currently in high demand, such as yogurt drinks and milk mix drinks. These products pose a particular challenge for dairy companies because their high protein content significantly increases the risk of deposits, which complicates process control, increases the risk of microbiologi-cal contamination, and thus leads to more frequent cleaning and associated higher re-source consumption and longer downtimes.

»CoControl-FouliQ« consists of clamp-on temperature sensors, a compact computing unit integrated into a hygienic control cabinet, and a specially trained machine learning model for data evaluation and fouling prediction. The system uses real-time data from sensors at the inlet and outlet of the heat exchanger and evaluates it using the machine learning model. Temperature curves serve as an indicator of incipient deposits, enabling cleaning to be planned efficiently and as needed rather than at fixed intervals.
By planning cleaning operations according to demand, the system not only helps to conserve resources and optimize plant availability, but also increases product safety by ensuring reliable and consistent process control.

 

»AJCsens«

50% less cleaning time – 100% safety and control during tank cleaning

With »AJCsens«, Fraunhofer IVV presents a smart spray cleaning system for demand-based tank cleaning, which offers a forward-looking answer to the ever-increasing pres-sure on time and resources thanks to its enormous savings potential.

The highly compact onboard contamination sensor technology of the target jet cleaner enables permanent inline monitoring of the cleanliness status and, for the first time, direct detection of the contamination status on the inner tank surfaces. In combination with the option of specifically adapting the cleaning and movement paths to the tank ge-ometry and the typically expected contamination patterns, it is possible to tailor the cleaning process to requirements and thus save over 50% in cleaning time..

The cleaning system combines a motor-driven target jet cleaner with two freely controllable axes and a highly compact and robust contamination sensor in a hygienic design housing with intelligent software.
The optical hybrid contamination sensor detects contamination primarily using the fluo-rescence method (UV light) or white light on the tank surfaces.

The potential of this technology solution has already been demonstrated in a case study at a well-known dairy company and will be presented at drinktec, among other things, with a lecture.

 

»CoControl-QCM«

Reliable inline cleaning monitoring for pipelines

Until now, cleaning monitoring of closed pipe systems has mainly been carried out in the product or cleaning medium, but not where the contamination actually is: directly on the pipe wall. The »CoControl-QCM« was developed to determine directly when the clean-ing process has actually been completed successfully.

The quartz crystal-based sensor solution enables reliable inline detection of a wide variety of contaminants, such as product deposits, biofilms and crystalline fouling. The sensor can also detect product changes or different cleaning agents or phase changes, as the damping behavior of the fluid above the sensor changes due to viscosity. The highly com-pact sensor works according to the reverse piezoelectric effect and detects even ex-tremely thin, optically undetectable layers of contamination.

Using a special evaluation algorithm, it is now possible for the first time to directly measure the degree of contamination during the fouling and cleaning processes based on changes in the natural frequency of the quartz crystal and to draw reliable conclusions about the cleaning success and actual cleaning requirements. The highly complex sensor can be easily integrated into existing systems.

 

Contact
Max Hesse
Chief Engineer Processing and Cleaning Systems
Phone: +49 351 43614-53
max.hesse@ivv-dd.fraunhofer.de