Fouling is the unwanted deposition on surfaces in process plants, especially in heat exchangers. These fouling layers reduce the heat capacity of the apparatus, which may result in higher investments and operational costs, shutdown periods, as well as product damage. Different types of fouling occur such as crystallization fouling, biofouling, particulate fouling or reaction fouling.
At present, research activities at the ICTV are related to crystallization, particle and reaction fouling as well as fouling and cleaning (Cleaning-in-Place CIP) in food processing. With test rigs from bench to pilot plant scale the determining material, technical and operational parameters for the fouling respectively cleaning process are investigated and subsequently transferred into models and simulations. Thereby AI tools are also applied. Objective is the prediction of the fouling behavior under process conditions and based on this the identification of suitable measures for the prevention or mitigation of fouling. Cleaning is considered holistically with the preceding fouling process.
Read more about the current research projects here.
