b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2

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Research Paper

Inverse estimation of fluid-to-particle heat transfer

coefficient in aseptic processing of particulate foods

Sriram K. Vidyarthi a,b, Dharmendra K. Mishra c,*, Kirk D. Dolan d,

Yoshiki Muramatsu e
a
The Morning Star Company, Woodland, CA 95695, USA
b
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
c
Department of Food Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
d
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
e
Department of Bioproduction and Environment Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Setagaya, Tokyo
1568502, Japan

article info
This study proposes and implements inverse methods to estimate fluid-to-particulate heat
Article history: transfer coefficient (hfp) of liquid-particulate solution (sweet potato puree and chickpea)
Received 25 May 2020 during aseptic processing. The other physical and thermal properties of food were
Received in revised form computed using forward techniques. A statistical analysis was conducted to assess the
9 August 2020 accuracy of the estimated results and performance of the inverse method. The inverse
Accepted 16 August 2020 technique successfully estimated the hfp with a good correlation with simulated and pre-
Published online 29 August 2020 dicted temperature of the centre of the fastest moving solid particle, zero mean and un-
correlated errors in residuals, higher scaled sensitivity coefficient, and consistent
Keywords: sequential estimation curve. The good fitting between the simulated experimental and the
Mathematical modelling estimated results confirms the robustness of the proposed inverse method in estimating
Inverse method accurate hfp to achieve sufficient lethality of the liquid-particulate food product. The study
Particulate food can be useful in facilitating the optimisation of the carrier fluid rheological specifications,
Fluid-to-liquid heat transfer the design of the processing equipment, and the process settings for the commercial
Aseptic processing aseptic system.
Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IAgrE.

canned hermetically and then heat-treated for specified

1. Introduction
Thermal processing is a common unit operation in food pro-
cessing. Many of the food operations, such as canning, pas-
teurisation, and sterilisation rely on thermal processing to
destroy bacteria for food preservation. During conventional
in-container thermal processing, the food is first appropriately
timeetemperature schedule, such as high temperature short
time (HTST), low temperature long time (LTLT) or ultra-high
temperature (UHT). The heat treatment is conducted in a
specific way for different products to inactivate the targeted
microbial growth in order to extend their shelf lives with
minimal quality deterioration (Stoforos & Sawada, 2007). On

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mishradh@purdue.edu (D.K. Mishra).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2020.08.012
1537-5110/Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IAgrE.
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2
the other hand, aseptic processing is an alternative thermal
food processing and packaging technique with a great po-
tential to produce high-quality food products. In aseptic pro-
cessing, commercially thermally sterilised products are
packaged into sterilised containers and then sealed under
sterile condition to prevent microbial recontamination of the
product (Ramaswamy et al., 1997). A typical aseptic process
involves heating of a pumpable food product of controlled
flow to sterilising temperatures, followed by holding for a time
sufficient for sterilisation, and then cooling it to filling tem-
perature before filling in an aseptic container. In other words,
aseptic process involves in-flow heating, holding, and cooling
of pumpable food products, followed by filling in pre-sterilised
containers under aseptic conditions (Berk, 2018), as shown in
Fig. 1. Generally, the aseptic processing results in a high rate of
microbial destruction and improved product quality, such as
better texture, flavour, and colour compared to traditional
thermal processes, such as canning. Aseptic processed foods
have higher shelf life and better nutritional and sensory
properties, and can accommodate wider packaging sizes and
container materials, which makes aseptic processes more
attractive commercially (Betta et al., 2011).
Theoretically, any pumpable food product can be pro-
cessed aseptically, however, the design for aseptic processing
varies for different foods. The demand for aseptic processing
of low acid food (pH > 4.6) and high-viscous food containing
discrete particles has been increasing. Microbiological quality
assurance and establishing critical control factors conforming
regulatory requirements for such foods are extremely chal-
lenging (Heldman, 1989). Normally, achieving commercial
sterility is relatively easier for homogeneous food, however, it
becomes more challenging for heterogeneous food products,
such as liquid carrier containing discrete solid particles
(liquid-particulate food), especially due to difficulties associ-
ated with irregular solids particle size distribution and their
different residence times, temperature measurements of
Fig. 1 e Schematic of aseptic processing of food.
211
moving particles, and estimation of convective heat transfer
coefficients at the particle surface. All of these make the
aseptic processing design for heterogeneous food products
more complicated (Stoforos & Sawada, 2007).
In the food industry, the lethality value (F0) of an aseptic
processing is used to quantify target spore inactivation in the
sterilisation processes. According to food regulations (21 CFR
113.40), the aseptic food processing system must be designed
to heat and hold (in other words, sterilise) every particle of
food product for at least the minimum time specified in the
scheduled process (FDA, 2014). Moreover, it is also undesirable
to over-process the food to destroy its nutritional values. In
addition to delivering sufficient thermal lethality to the fluid
medium, aseptic processing of food products containing solid
particulates requires achieving commercial sterility in the
coldest location (normally, centre) of the fastest moving par-
ticle. The temperature of the centre of the fastest moving
particle depends on various things, such as properties of the
particles and carrier fluid, particles velocity and rotation, their
residence time distribution (RTD), and characterisation of
heat transfer mechanism (Balasubramaniam, 1993; Toledo
et al., 2018).
Mathematical modelling has been used as an effective and
valuable tool in food processing simulations providing un-
derstandings of several aspects of the food processes without
spending excessive time and effort in doing experiments
(Farid, 2010; Farkas et al., 1996; Li & Pan, 2014a, 2014b; Singh &
Heldman, 2010; Smith, 2013; Vidyarthi, 2017; Vidyarthi, El
Mashad, et al., 2019; Vidyarthi, Li, et al., 2019). Aseptic pro-
cessing of food, including liquidesolid particulate foods is on
the rise in the food processing industry over the last four de-
cades. However, there are hardly any conventional means
available to measure the temperature of such heterogeneous
food, which makes the accurate measurement of particulate
temperature in such foods extremely challenging. There is
still lack of understanding of liquid-to-particle heat transfer in
continuous flow during aseptic processing, which makes
regulatory approval of aseptic processing of many liquid-
particle foods difficult. From the food safety perspective, an
accurate measurement of timeetemperature data of the
coldest point within the particle is crucial to evaluate the
thermal process. A good prediction of particulate temperature
enables a precise evaluation of lethality (F value), providing
better assessment of the aseptic process efficacy. Therefore,
prediction of solid particulate temperature, especially the
temperature of the critical region of a particle during aseptic
processing of liquid-particulate foods and lethality calcula-
tions through mathematical modelling have been an area of
interest and studied by several researchers
(Balasubramaniam, 1993; Balasubramaniam & Sastry, 1994;
De Ruyter & Brunet, 1973; Ibrahim et al., 2019; Krishnan &
Aravamudan, 2013; Lee et al., 1990; Mankad et al., 1997;
Sandeep et al., 1999; Sastry, 1986).
Determination of heat transfer coefficient (hfp) between
fluid and particle in the continuous flow conditions is crucial
to assess the thermal process. Several researchers (Sastry
et al., 1990; Stoforos & Merson, 1991) have attempted
different modelling approaches to evaluate hfp; however, the
results could not be broadly compared because of the varia-
tion in techniques used (Balasubramaniam, 1993). Under
212 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2
traditional indirect heating regimes, where the food is not in
direct contact with the heating media, heat transfer within the
particle is governed by diffusion. Therefore, the temperature
gradient inside the particle can be solved analytically as a
function of the Biot number. At the surface of the particle,
parameters needed for the forward problem become more
complex, as a convective boundary condition between the
fluid and the particle exists. The fluid-to-particle convective
heat transfer coefficient (hfp) is a function of the fluid flow field
around the solid particle, the thermal and rheological prop-
erties of the fluid, and the dimensions of the particle and pipe.
In addition to knowledge of fluid and particle properties and
process specifications, an accurate and precise solution to the
forward problem depends on an accurate and precise value of
hfp. This value cannot be derived from first principles nor
easily determined by experiment due to (1) the complexity
because of involvement of liquid and solid particulates in the
mixture, and (2) the challenge of measuring temperature
either at the surface or at the centre of a fast moving particle
in a flowing fluid without impacting the flow characteristics
(restriction of rotation) or the particle's properties (including
size, density, and thermal diffusivity due to the presence of a
sensor).
Nevertheless, many experiments have been pursued by a
number of researchers using a range of techniques, resulting
in values of convective heat transfer coefficient as low as 58 to
as high as 7870 W/m2 K, depending on experimental condi-
tions. Since last decade, inverse heat techniques have been
employed to estimate heat and mass transfer properties in
food processes, such as heat transfer coefficient, mass diffu-
sivity, and boundary conditions using temperature measure-
ment in solid particles. Reddy et al. (2020) estimated heat flux
during bread baking at a temperature of 200
C under natural
and forced convection using inverse method. Das et al. (2005)
estimated the convective heat transfer coefficient based on
local Nusselt number from transient liquid crystal data using
inverse technique and stated that the inverse technique was
able to solve changes in the heat transfer rate for the flat plate
and the rib geometries and was insensitive to noise in the
experimental data. Convective heat transfer coefficient and
thermal diffusivity of cucumbers were estimated using in-
verse technique in order to understand the post-harvest
cooling of cucumbers and other similar vegetables (da Silva
& e Silva, 2014). Yoon and Park (2013) estimated convective
heat transfer coefficient, emissivity, and flame heat flux on
the surface of Duglas fir using reverse particle swarm opti-
misation technique in inverse method. Bozzoli et al. (2014)
estimated local heat transfer coefficient in coiled tubes using
inverse heat conduction approach and stated that convective
heat transfer coefficient varied significantly along the perim-
eter of the coil. Mohebbi and Sellier (2016) estimated thermal
conductivity, heat transfer coefficient, and heat flux in three
dimensional irregular bodies in steady state heat conduction
problems using numerical inverse method. However, the in-
formation on application of inverse technique for estimation
of fluid-to-particulate heat transfer coefficient in aseptic
processing of liquid-particulate solution is still lacking in the
literature.
Therefore, the objective of this study is to present an in-
verse method to estimate the fluid-to-particulate heat
transfer coefficient (hfp) in aseptic processing of liquid-
particulate foods with known particle geometry, thermo-
physical properties, and RTDs. The information gained in this
study could be useful in designing commercial manufacturing
of aseptic processes for liquid-particulate foods. Due to the
non-existent data of particulate aseptic commercial produc-
tion system, a model commercial aseptic processing system
was chosen for this study and temperature at the centre of the
particle was simulated using a forward problem. This study
would serve as a methodology for estimation of heat transfer
coefficient (hfp) when technology is developed in future to
measure experimental temperature in a flowing particle in the
aseptic system.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Aseptic system description
The aseptic system model we referred in our study has three
sections e the heating, holding, and cooling section. The
product was introduced to the system through the heating
section where the liquid temperature of product increased
from its initial value (21
C) to a predetermined sterilisation
temperature based on the lethality value of product. The
heating section of the aseptic system modelled in this study
had two heat exchangers. The heat exchangers are of coil-in-
shell type with hot water as heating media in the shell side. A
representative drawing of the product flow in heating section
of the aseptic system is shown in Fig. 2. Next, the product
travelled through the holding section and, based on its ve-
locity, the product spent time to achieve thermal sterilisation.
Finally, the product passed through the cooling section where
its temperature falls to the specified value required for pack-
aging. Similar to the heating section, the system had two
cooling heat exchangers to drop the product temperature. The
dimension of each section of the aseptic system is shown in
Table 1.
2.2. Product formulation
A heat transfer model formulation for liquid-particulate so-
lution was chosen (Sastry & Cornelius, 2002) to study the
estimation of heat transfer coefficient from liquid to particle.
In this formulation, the liquid phase was sweet potato puree
and the solid particle phase was hydrated chickpea. The
thermal properties of both the liquid and solid particulate
phases are presented in Table 1. The heat transfer simulation
was performed based on the following aseptic conditions.
Sweet potato puree was pumped from an aseptic tote to the
product supply tank. Hydrated chickpea (12.7 mm) was added
to the product supply tank via a conveyor. Steam was supplied
to the product supply tank to ensure a uniform temperature
between liquid and particulate mixture. The flow rate and
initial temperature of the product was 132.48 l min1 and
21
C, respectively. Based on the literature, the target lethality
(F0) at the centre of the solid particle was established to be
6 min (Ibrahim et al., 2019). The lethality, F0, is defined at a
reference temperature of 121.1
C and at a z value of 10
C.
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2 213

Fig. 2 e Representation of solid (hydrated chickpea) and liquid (sweet potato puree) flowing in a coil-in-shell heat exchanger.

2.3. Mathematical model
2.3.1. Forward problem
Simulations of large particle flow in a carrier fluid are limited
in literature. Due to the dynamics involved with the flow of
particles, particle-to-particle interaction, particle-to-wall
interaction, distribution of particles, and impact of tempera-
ture on viscosity and movement of particles, such simulations
are rather difficult and require extensive computation time.
However, from a process safety perspective, with certain
conservative assumptions, a simplified model can be used for
simulation of the temperature profile in the particle. In this
study, for the mathematical model of the heat transfer in
liquids and solid particles, particles are assumed to be radially
well mixed across the tube. The velocity profile of the product
is defined not only by the fluid viscosity, but also by the par-
ticle distribution, particle velocity, and particle-to-particle
interaction. Therefore, RTD study is usually conducted to
find the fastest moving particle in the system. In this study, we
have assumed a flow correction factor (Eq. (10)) value of 0.74.
When a solideliquid mixture flows through the heat
exchanger tube, the heat, mass, and momentum are trans-
ferred between fluid and particles, as well as, between parti-
cles (Sastry & Cornelius, 2002). A simplified radially well mixed
thermal model was proposed by Sastry and Cornelius (2002)
with the assumption that all particles are of equal size. Two
steps were proposed for the radially well mixed model:

1. Simulation of heat transfer is performed to obtain the

fluid temperature throughout the system. Energy bal-
Table 1 e Aseptic processing system and product ance on the fluid phase is solved iteratively with the
information used for the forward problem System heat conduction equation in the particle.
Parameter.
2. Once the fluid temperature is obtained from step 1, cold
System Parameter Value spot temperature in the fastest moving particle can be
Number of heating heat exchangers 2 determined by imposing the fluid temperature profile.
Heating heat exchanger length e each 75 m Particle time can be adjusted in this step so that the
Heating tube diameter 5.74 cm fastest particle experiences the fluid profile faster than
Number of cooling heat exchangers 2
the representative particle.
Cooling heat exchanger length e each 75 m
Cooling tube diameter 5.74 cm
Hold tube length e coils 75 m A numerical solution was implemented in MATLAB®
Hold tube ID 5.74 cm (R2019b) using following heat transfer equations from Sastry
Flow rate of the product 132.5 l min1 and Cornelius (2002).
Initial inlet temperature e particle 21
C Energy balance over incremental sections of a heat
Particle shape Spherical exchanger can be described as
Particle diameter 12.7 mm




Particle concentration 11 (% v/v)
Uhx Ahx Tmed  Tm ¼ m_ f Cpf Tnþ1  Tnf þ hfp;hx Ap np;hx Tm
f  Tsp
m
Particle density (Sabapathy, 2005) 1109.82 kg m3 f f

Particle specific heat particle (Sabapathy, 2005) 2263.8 kJ kg1
C1 (1)
Particle thermal conductivity (Sabapathy, 2005) 0.4 W m1
C1
Fluid density (Mishra et al., 2016) 1060 kg m3 where Tm
f is the mean fluid temperature, Uhx is the overall heat

Fluid specific heat particle (Mishra et al., 2016)
Fluid thermal conductivity (Mishra et al., 2016)
Fluid consistency coefficient at temperature
30
C
Fluid flow behaviour index
Flow correction factor based on residence time
study
4036 kJ kg1
C1 transfer coefficient of the heat exchanger (W m2
C1), Tmed is
0.57 W m1
C1 the hot water temperature (
C), m_ f is the mass flow rate of the
2000 mPa sn fluid (kg s1), Cpf is the specific heat of the fluid (J kg1
C1),
Tnþ1
f is the temperature at (n þ 1)th time step (
C), Tnf is the
0.34
0.74
temperature at the nth time step, hfp,hx is the convective heat
transfer coefficient from fluid to particle in the heat exchanger
214 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2

(W m2
C1), Ap is the particle surface area (m2), Tm

sp is the problem relies on the solid particulate temperature mea-
mean temperature of the particle surface (
C). surements at specific location, especially at the centre of the
The mean fluid temperature was calculated using the faster moving particulate. The physical model was defined
CrankeNicolson approach where the varying temperature at using MATLAB®. A numerical solution of Eqs. (1)e(9) for
incremental section can be written as spherical particle with the characteristic diameter same as
! chickpea (12.7 mm) was modelled using heat transfer in solids
sp þ Tsp
Tnþ1 n
interface and a time-dependent study. Known values of
sp ¼
Tm (2)
2 thermal conductivity and volumetric heat functions were
used in the particle domain. The inverse problem is sensitive
! to errors occurring during temperature measurement; there-
Tnþ1
f þ Tnf
Tm
f ¼ (3) fore, the correct measurement of temperatures is crucial. A
2
convective heat flux (hfp (Tf  Ts)) boundary condition was
imposed at the sphere surface. The fluid temperature data
Ahx ¼ pDhx Dxhx (4)
was collected from the simulated experiments curves
comprising heating, holding, and cooling curves, as specified
n
Vhx
np;hx ¼ (5) in Fig. 3. The initial temperature of the sphere was specified
Vp
same as the initial particle temperature from the simulated
where Dhx is the diameter of the heat exchanger coil (m), x is experiment (21
C).
the position vector, Dx is the length of the small section of the Sensitivity coefficients of a parameter provides insight into
heat exchanger (m), np,hx is the number of particles in the in- the estimation process. The larger the sensitivity coefficient,
n the less the error will be for the estimated parameter. Hence,
cremental heat exchanger, Vhx is the volume of the total fluid
flowing inside the heat exchanger (m3), Vp is the volume of the we want the sensitivity coefficients to be as large as possible
solid particle (m3). given the constraints of the possible physical experiments.
The volume of the fluid flowing in a tubular heat exchanger The sensitivity coefficient of a parameter is the first partial
can be calculated as, derivative of the function with respect to the parameter (Beck,
1970). Scaled sensitivity coefficients (SSCs) were determined
p
n
Vhx ¼ D2 Dxhx (6) through application of the finite difference method in MAT-
4
LAB. SSC is the sensitivity coefficient multiplied by the
The particle temperature Tnþ1
sp appearing in Eq. (2) is deter- parameter value. SSC is useful in determining the accuracy
mined by solving the partial differential equation of heat with which a parameter can be estimated. In general, the SSC
conduction through the particles. For a spherical particle, the should be large and uncorrelated. Sensitivity coefficient of
heat conduction equation is given by, fluid-to-particle heat transfer coefficient is given by:
 
1 v 2 vTp vTp
kp r ¼ rp Cpp for R0 < r < R1 ; t > 0 (7) b h ¼ hfp vTp
X (11)
r2 vr vr vt fp
vhfp
and the boundary conditions are given by, b is the sensitivity coefficient and vTp =vhfp is the partial
where X
vTp   first order derivative of particle temperature.
kp ¼ hfp;hx Tsp  Tf ðtÞ (8)
vr Sequential estimation of parameter algorithm was used
following Mishra et al. (2016). Sequential estimation was per-
The initial condition is
formed by applying the method of matrix inversion and the
Tðr; 0Þ ¼ T0 (9) Gauss minimisation function, which can be expressed by,

The flow correction factor is defined as: b T 0

vave
fcf ¼
vmax
where rp is the density of the particle (kg m3), r is the radius of
particle (m), Tsp is the temperature of the particle surface (
C),
Tf is the fluid temperature (
C), kp is the thermal conductivity
of the particle (W m1
C1), vave is the average velocity of the
product (m s1) and vmax is the velocity of the fastest moving
particle (m s1).
b 0
_  b
S ¼ ½Y  YðbÞ W½Y  YðbÞ þ ½m  bT U½m (12)
where S is the Gauss minimisation function, Y is the experi-
(10)
b is the predicted response, b is the
mental response variable, Y
parameter, m is the prior information of parameter, T0 is the
transpose of matrix, and W is the inverse of covariance matrix
of errors.
The extremum of the minimisation function can be found
by differentiating it with respect to the parameter of interest.
The derived function is represented here,

2.3.2. Inverse problem b

Vb S ¼  2½Vb YðbÞT b
W½Y  YðbÞ _  b
 2½IU½m (13)
For the inverse problem, the convective heat transfer coeffi-
where I is the identity matrix. Here, b (in our case hfp) can be
cient of the fluid-to-particulate heat transfer coefficient (hfp) in
solved implicitly by setting Eq. (12) to zero.
aseptic processing of liquid-particulate foods is unknown
while other parameters in the direct or forward problem are Aiþ1 ¼ Pi XTiþ1 (14)
known. In order to estimate unknown parameters, the inverse
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2 215

Fig. 3 e Simulated fluid and particle surface and centre temperature as the particulate product passes through the heaters,
hold tube, and coolers of the aseptic system.

3. Results and discussions

Diþ1 ¼ fiþ1 þ Xiþ1 Aiþ1 (15)

3.1. Residence time distribution

Kiþ1 ¼ Aiþ1 D 1
iþ1 (16)
Information of experimental RTD of aseptically processed
b iþ1
eiþ1 ¼ Yiþ1  Y (17) liquid-particulate foods is important to design a safe thermal
process while still maintaining a good product quality. The
  
b*iþ1 ¼ b*i þ Kiþ1 eiþ1  Xiþ1 b*i  b (18) velocity and temperature profiles of food particles play a
critical role in the design of the thermal process. In last three
Piþ1 ¼ Pi  Kiþ1 Xiþ1 Pi (19) decades, several researchers have attempted to design aseptic
processes for particulate food products and recommended a
The stopping criteria for parameter can be given as
timeetemperature profile to achieve the desired lethality at

kþ1
the centre of the fastest moving particle (Balasubramaniam,

bj  bkj

<d (20) 1993; Chandarana & Unverferth, 1996; Ibrahim et al., 2019;

k

bj
þ d1 Palazoglu & Sandeep, 2002; Ramaswamy et al., 1997). Both the
conventional thermal processing methodology and mathe-
where X is the sensitivity matrix, P is the covariance vector
matical modelling have been applied to assess the tempera-
matrix of parameters, e is the error vector, i is the index of
ture distribution and lethality in the particles of the liquid-
iteration, and b is the parameter index.
particulate foods to provide adequate heating for food
To solve the Inverse Problem, following assumptions were
safety. Experimental time and temperature distribution data
considered for this study:
during aseptic thermal processing is extremely hard to collect
due to difficulties associated with the movement of the par-

Y ¼ h(X,b) þ e. Where Y is additive error in measure-
ticulates. Mathematical modelling followed by microbiolog-
ments. The regression function h does not contain any
ical validation has been attempted as an alternative which
random errors.
provides flexibility to generate timeetemperature profile

Zero mean measurements. This could be verified with
using the suitable parameters and validate the outcome. So
the residual analysis of the estimated parameters and
far, all these modelling methods dealt with forward problems
predicted temperature.
which highly rely on precise value of critical factors, such as

Constant variance of errors.
hfp as well as the RTD of particles, in the heating heat ex-

Uncorrelated errors.
changers, holding tube, and cooling heat exchangers of the

Error has a normal distribution
aseptic system. Both hfp and RTD are dependent on several
216 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2
factors, including flow rate, temperature and density of the
carrier fluid, shape, density and concentration of the solid
particles, and holding tube dimension (length and diameter)
(Ramaswamy et al., 1995). Based on the characteristic diam-
eter of the particles and all other parameters provided in Table
1 for the mathematical modelling, the RTD profile with a flow
correction factor for the worst-case particle was 0.74.
3.2. Impact of hfp on the accumulated lethality of fluid
and particle
The assurance of microbiological safety of food product is the
most important part in aseptic processing. Particle size,
thermophysical properties, RTD within the heat exchanger
and hold tube, and hfp is important for process design (Sastry,
1986). Achieving the precise value of hfp, especially for the
fastest moving particulate is critical to obtain the required
accumulated lethality during the aseptic processing. A lower
hfp can compromise the food safety and a higher hfp can result
in the excessive loss of nutrients and degrade overall quality
of food product. Mathematical modelling is a great tool to
establish lethality and ensure sterilisation of the worst-case
particle in particulate liquid food products. We estimated
the hfp using a suitable mathematical model to achieve the
sufficient lethality. The relationship between particle (hy-
drated chickpea) hfp and accumulated lethality at a constant
time in the hold tube and the whole aseptic system from our
modelling study is shown in Fig. 4. As can be seen in Fig. 4, the
whole aseptic system will accumulate significantly higher
lethality for the solid particles than the holding tube alone
because the holding tube is only one of the parts of the whole
aseptic system and thus the particle spends more time in the
system compared to the time spent in only the holding tube.
For designing the thermal process for aseptic products with
Fig. 4 e Impact of hfp on the accumulated particle lethality in the hold tube and the entire system.
particles, a minimum hfp value is needed to ensure the deliv-
ered lethality. To show the impact of hfp on accumulated
lethality, a value of 550 W m2
C1 was used in the mathe-
matical model to achieve the required lethality of 6 min to
ensure food safety. It can be seen in Fig. 4 that a small increase
of hfp in the beginning (up to around 1000 W m2
C1)
increased the particulate (hydrated chickpea) lethality
sharply, whereas the rate of increase in lethality slowed down
gradually with further increase in hfp. Therefore, changing the
hfp as per the modelling data in Fig. 4 will affect the lethality
significantly and thus an accurate value of hfp will optimise the
commercial thermal sterilisation process for the solid particle
(hydrated chickpea). For instance, selecting an arbitrary con-
servative hfp value (around 1000 W m2
C1) will be safe from
microbiological food safety but will accumulate undesired
lethality for the chickpea and the product formulation.
It is important to examine the effect of hfp on the nutri-
tional profile of the food. Palazoglu and Sandeep (2002)
assessed the effect of hfp on the microbial and nutritional
destruction during aseptic processing of particulate food.
They targeted lethality of 3 min at the centre of the particle,
evaluated the required holding time using the most conser-
vative hfp (1000 W m2
C1) for that particle size (10 mm
diameter), and then calculated the nutrient retention for
higher hfp using the same holding time. They concluded that
an increase in hfp did not improve the nutrient retention
despite reducing the heating time required to reach the target
lethality. They further added that the quality losses were more
pronounced for larger particles. In their study, nutrient
(thiamin) retention was highest for the smallest particle size
of diameter of 10 mm for all the tested hfp values. Most of the
quality degradation occurred when they employed a higher hfp
value than the most conservative hfp value (1000 W m2
C1).
In our study, chickpea being relatively similar in size
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2
(diameter 12.7 mm) compared to the particle diameter
(10 mm) used in the other study, achieving appropriate hfp is
crucial to achieve the target lethality at the centre of the
particle at the end of the holding tube, while minimising
overheating and unnecessary loss of nutrients.
Another important point that must be considered in order
to achieve an adequate hfp is the particulate flow correction
factor. Lethality highly depends on the particulate flow
correction factor. Figure 5 shows the impact of particulate
correction factor on the accumulated lethality at the centre of
the worst-case particle. Flow correction factor dictates if the
flow is laminar or turbulent. In our study, as presented in
Table 1, we have assumed a laminar flow of the product in the
hold tube and the overall aseptic system with a flow correc-
tion factor of 0.5, which accumulates a lower lethality. How-
ever, an increase in the flow turbulence significantly increases
the particulate lethality (Fig. 5). Assuming a high turbulent
flow with particulate correction factor of 0.83, the lethality of
the aseptic system increases almost more than three folds
(lethality approximately 18 min and 65 min at 0.5 and 0.83
correction factors, respectively) as the particulates can have
more residence time in the system at higher correction factor.
3.3. Inverse problems outcome
Simulated temperature measurements were used as the
experimental input data for the inverse analysis and they
were computed from the forward problem solution. The in-
verse problems results are presented in Figs. 6e9 to show the
validity and accuracy of our simulation results. As discussed
before, the flow of a mixture with sweet potato puree and
hydrated chickpea (flow rate 132.48 l min1 and initial tem-
perature 21
C) in the aseptic thermal system was considered
for the inverse analysis. A uniform temperature supply to the
Fig. 5 e Relationship between flow correction factor and lethality during aseptic processing.
217
liquid and particulates was ensured using hot water supplied
to the heat exchanger. Figure 6 shows the simulated and
predicted temperatures at the centre of the fastest moving
particulate during aseptic processing which suggests a good fit
of our model. The experimental temperature is generally well
predicted by the model obtained by sequential estimation, so
this approach of estimating a parameter, mean value of hfp
over the entire process may have utility. The predicted parti-
cle centre temperature was computed based on hfp value of
550 W m2
C1. Overall, the worst-case particle residence
time in the whole aseptic system (heating, holding, and
cooling) was about 430 s where the peak particle centre tem-
perature (approximately 130
C) was achieved in about 280 s of
residence time in the aseptic system (Fig. 6). Figure 7 shows
the residual plot for the estimation of hfp. The scattered re-
sidual in Fig. 7 illustrating zero mean and uncorrelated errors
indicates a better estimate of hfp using inverse problem which
also validates that our assumptions to solve the inverse
problem are good. The zero mean and uncorrelated errors and
uniformly scattered and normalised residuals validate the
assumptions of additive errors in measurement. Unlike mul-
tiplicative errors, additive errors generally demonstrate con-
stant variance of errors and normal distribution, which is well
established in Fig. 7.
3.4. Analysis of sensitivity coefficients and sequential
estimation
The accuracy of hfp estimates is further tested by its SSC
(Mishra et al., 2016). A higher value of absolute SSC is desirable
for better estimates of hfp. Generally, a lower SSC (5% of
temperature rise) results in a poor estimate of hfp. The
magnitude and shape of the SSC varied depending on the
initial estimate of hfp. The SSC of the estimated hfp
218 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2

Fig. 6 e Simulated and predicted temperature at the centre of the particulate.

Fig. 7 e Residual plot for the estimation of hfp.

(550 W m2
C1) is presented in Fig. 8 which reveals that the
particle centre temperature was most sensitive to hfp with
highest absolute SSC at two different time points, approxi-
mately 100 s and 340 s, when the maximum and minimum
particle temperatures were achieved, i.e. at the exit of the
heating and cooling sections, respectively. From Fig. 6, it can
be noticed that the maximum temperature rise of the centre
of the particle is about 109
C (130
Ce21
C) and the maximum
rise in SSC from Fig. 8 can be noticed to be 11
C, which is
about 10% of the total temperature rise. Similarly, the
maximum drop in SSC is about 14
C (Fig. 8). Therefore, the
absolute difference in scaled sensitivity is about 25
C, which
is more than 20% of the temperature rise (109
C) in the centre
of the particle, indicating a good estimate of hfp using inverse
problem. Usually at lower values of hfp the particle centre
temperature is found most sensitive to only one point. For
example, from our simulation, at low values of hfp
(50 W m2
C1), the particle centre temperature was found
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2 219

Fig. 8 e Scaled sensitivity coefficient of hfp during aseptic processing.

Fig. 9 e Sequential estimation of hfp.

most sensitive to hfp at three minutes, after approximately
90% of the holding time had elapsed. Overall, a high absolute
value of SSC in our study shows a good estimate of hfp
(550 W m2
C1), which indicates that inverse technique can
be applied successfully to estimate the fluid-to-particulate
heat transfer coefficient in aseptic processing of liquid-
particulate solution.
For a more robust estimation of hfp, a series of simulated
experiments were conducted by adding random errors to the
temperature profile. Sequential estimation is an estimation
method which is applied where sample size is not fixed in
advance. Instead, the sequence of samples is taken, and the
outcome of each sampling is determined to ensure the further
need of another sampling. The process is terminated when
the anticipated degree of precision is attained. Figure 9 dis-
plays the results for the sequential estimation of the esti-
mated hfp value which illustrates a stable hfp over time after
the initial period (after about 30 s). A consistent stable
220 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2

Table 2 e The effect of experimental error (s) on the estimation of hfp of liquid-particulate food. All the units are in
W m¡2
C¡1.
S hfp Standard error RMSE SSE LCI UCI
0 550 0.145 0.007 2.667 549.995 550.004
0.5 549.832 0.145 0.744 26,586.6 549.407 550.256
1 549.926 0.145 1.487 106,118 549.078 550.774
1.5 550.456 0.146 2.234 239,652 549.18 551.732
2 549.851 0.145 2.975 424,756 548.155 551.547

Note: RMSE e Root mean square error; SSE e Sum of squares or errors; LCI e Lower confidence interval; UCI e Upper confidence interval.

sequential estimate of hfp after the initial period indicates a
good estimation process with less errors in the parameters
(Fig. 9).
The accuracy of the hfp estimation was further analysed by
several statistical parameter in Table 2. Table 2 shows the
effect of experimental error (s) on the accuracy of hfp esti-
mation and other performance indicators, which clearly il-
lustrates that a change in experimental error greatly affects
the predicted hfp and the confidence interval. A higher
experimental error contributed to a higher root mean square
error (RMSE) and sum of squares of errors (SSE), as well as
wider confidence intervals, leading to a poorer estimate of hfp.
underpredicting the particle centre temperature during the
heating and cooling sections.
Declaration of competing interest
Authors declare that this manuscript is original and authors
have no known conflict of interest associated with this
manuscript. We have not excluded any individual who satis-
fied the authorship criteria. We confirm that all of the listed
authors have read and approved the content of the manu-
script. The corresponding author would be the sole contact for
the editorial process.

4. Conclusions and recommendations

This work demonstrates the potential for inverse methods to Acknowledgements

be used in the aseptic processing of food containing large
particles. A forward problem was used to simulate the This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of
timeetemperature profile at the centre of the fastest moving Food and Agriculture, Hatch project 1023114.
particle. An inverse technique was successfully applied for the
estimation of the fluid-to-particle heat transfer coefficient (hfp) Nomenclature
of the fastest moving particle during aseptic processing of the
mixture of sweet potato puree and chickpeas. Results showed Cp Specific heat of fluid (J kg1
C1)
that the inverse technique provides accurate estimates for the m_ Mass flow rate (kg s1)
hfp with a good correlation with simulated and predicted A Surface area (m2)
temperature of the centre of the fastest moving solid particle, b Parameter matrix
zero mean and uncorrelated errors in residuals, higher SSC, D Diameter of coils (m)
and consistent sequential estimation curve. Given the known e Error vector
required lethality and sensitivity of the particle temperature fcf flow correction factor
distribution to hfp, if the particle size and particle thermo- h Convective heat transfer coefficient (W m2
C1)
physical properties can be readily measured, inverse estima- k Thermal conductivity (W m2
C1)
tion of hfp can facilitate the co-current optimisation of the n Time step index
carrier fluid rheological specifications, the design of the pro- P Covariance vector matrix of parameters
cessing equipment, and the process settings. r Radius (m)
The experimental temperature is generally well predicted T Temperature (
C)
by the model obtained by sequential estimation. Therefore, U_ Inverse of covariance matrix of parameters
this approach of computing a constant mean value of hfp over U Overall heat transfer coefficient (W m2
C1)
the entire process may have utility. However, in reality, hfp v Volume
would assume non-constant values in the heating, holding, Vave Average velocity of product
and cooling sections due to temperature dependence of terms Vmax maximum velocity of particle
appearing in the Nusselt and Prandtl numbers, especially the W inverse of covariance matrix of errors
viscosity and thermal conductivity of the fluid medium. x Position vector
Therefore, future work will include the functional expression X Sensitivity matrix
of the temperature dependence of hfp, optimised for utilisation Y Experimental response variable
^
Y Predicted response
in the inverse problem. Moreover, to avoid over-estimating
the accumulated lethality, it would also be desirable for re- b Parameter
siduals to exhibit greater randomness, and to err on the side of m Prior information of parameter
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 2 1 0 e2 2 2
r Density (kg m3)
4 Variance of the errors in Y
Superscripts/subscripts
f fluid
hx heat exchanger
i index for iteration
med Medium
p particle
s Surface
fp fluid-to-particle
m mean
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