SteriBeam Systems has developed a pilot UVC system for the sanitation of spices and powders in a vortex flow. Results with customers show one to two logs reduction at energy costs of about 100wh/kg – 450wh/kg (5c/kg – 20c/kg).
Energy costs are determined by a specific surface of samples, reachable by UVC light. It is very large for powders, lesser for seeds or shred teas. For example, the specific surface of 1cm³ is 6 cm². If the same 1cm³ cube is filled with cubes of 0.1mm (typical powder size), their full specific surface is 600cm².
UV doses increase proportionally with a surface to treat, so the smaller the powder sizes the longer the exposure required and bigger energy costs. A large size of surface can be off-set by partial UVC transparency for some shreds or powders. Vortex flow provides a very effective mixing end exposure for each powder particle or shred combined with a possibility to control the UVC transparency of a product flow.
The same cannot be reached with a forced mixing of powder layers on a "vibrating" conveyer under the same UVC lamp. This was checked using the same UV power consumption.
The method has no side effects except some products bleach to various degrees. For many shred and powder products it is a choice for non-invasive sanitation.
The method can be used for vitamin D2 enrichment (x100-x1000´s) in mushroom powders.
New customers are invited to test their products for modest fees to cover our bio-analysis (TPC) and the system usage. Tests are necessary, since each spice, tea or powder is unique in its properties to the UV light and each have various bio-loads. Therefore, each vortex UV sanitation is unique.
Please contact SteriBeam Systems to find out more.
