Design and implementation of an ultrasonic sensor for rapid monitoring of industrial malolactic fermentation of wines

ABSTRACT

Ultrasound is an emerging technology that can be applied to monitor food processes. However, ultrasonic techniques are usually limited to research activities within a laboratory environment and they are not extensively used in industrial processes. The aim of this paper is to describe a novel ultrasonic sensor designed to monitor physical–chemical changes that occur in wines stored in industrial tanks. Essentially, the sensor consists of an ultrasonic transducer in contact with a buffer rod, mounted inside a stainless steel tube section. This structure allows the ultrasonic sensor to be directly installed in stainless steel tanks of an industrial plant. The operating principle of this design is based on the measurement of ultrasonic velocity of propagation. To test its proper operation, the sensor has been used to measure changes of concentration in aqueous samples and to monitor the progress of a malolactic fermentation of red wines in various commercial wineries. Results show the feasibility of using this sensor for monitoring malolactic fermentations in red wines placed in industrial tanks.

KEYWORDS:

• Industrial measurements
• malolactic fermentation
• process monitoring
• sensor design
• ultrasound

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Daniel Carles for his help and valuable comments on this paper.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.

Author contributions

Miguel J. García-Hernández conceived and designed the ultrasonic sensor.

Daniel F. Novoa Díaz performed simulations.

Miquel A. Amer and Jordi Salazar conceived and designed the experiments.

Miquel A. Amer performed the experiments.

Daniel F. Novoa-Díaz, Juan A. Chávez, and Antoni Turó processed and analyzed the data.

Derviş A. Çelik, Miquel A. Amer, and Jordi Salazar wrote the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Project reference is DPI2009-14468-C02-01.