FOODHYDRATES

The Foodhydrates project aims to develop a hybrid and innovative freezing process that combines the formation of gas hydrates with the freezing of food products to obtain better quality frozen products with reduced energy consumption. Gas hydrates are crystalline compounds formed from water molecules, similar in appearance to ice. They can therefore be used to reduce the mobility and activity of water within products, just like ice does; However, hydrates are stable at positive temperature and form small crystals, which can represent an advantage both in terms of energy (freezing consumes a lot of energy) and product quality. The challenge of the project is to qualify the hybrid hydrate/ice freezing process, in particular by determining the optimal operating conditions and evaluating the potential of this new process. Several complementary approaches will be implemented in this project: a thermodynamic approach to select the hydrates and their equilibrium conditions, a thermal approach to characterize the crystallization kinetics, an X-ray microtomography approach to understand the distribution of phases (crystals, liquid) within the food matrix, a multi-criteria evaluation approach to assess the environmental impact and acceptability of the new process. Among the research questions raised, we will be particularly interested in understanding the effect of product porosity on the conditions of existence of the crystals, the possible migrations of hydrates and ice, their interactions according to the operating conditions, and ultimately the acceptable thermodynamic limits for the freezing process and the impact on product quality.