H2020 LIQUAM Project: High-power ultrasound technology to revolutionize the honey industry and the beekeeping sector
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2019 -2022
- Assigned Budget 1.380.662,5 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website LIQUAM
Honey crystallization, often referred to as granulation, is a natural phenomenon in which liquid honey becomes a semi-solid with a granular composition. This inevitable tendency constitutes a serious problem affecting the marketing of honey, often requiring heating, a process detrimental to the quality and health properties of honey.
The EU-funded LIQUAM project uses high-power ultrasound to reduce the sugar crystal content in honey without affecting its beneficial enzymes. With LIQUAM, customers will be able to sell premium honey at a 15–25% price premium, ensuring profitability during the first year of operation.
Crystallization is a natural phenomenon that occurs in honey a few weeks after extraction, caused by its high concentration of sugar crystals. This crystallized honey becomes opaque and semi-solid. This inevitable tendency is a serious problem that severely impacts honey marketing due to handling issues and because most consumers only buy liquid honey due to the widespread misconception that crystallized honey is spoiled or adulterated.
Consequently, retail honey is heated to 80°C to delay crystallization for 12 months post-processing and facilitate packaging. However, this heat treatment has been shown to be detrimental to the quality and health properties of honey, as it loses its desirable heat-sensitive enzymes and valuable antioxidants, thereby losing the abundant medicinal properties associated with it. In response to consumer demands for fresher, healthier foods, there is a clear need in the honey industry for a cost-effective non-thermal processing alternative. Sonicat System has developed a disruptive, patented system, based on the use of High Power Ultrasound, which reduces sugar crystal content to pasteurization levels (0.3%), without impacting enzymes, pH, conductivity, or the concentration of hydroxyl-methyl-furfural, a key indicator used globally to measure honey quality.
Our qualified team has invested over five years developing the functional prototype (capable of processing up to 100 kg/h), which has been validated for months at the client's facilities. We were awarded a Phase 1 SME Instrument, which allowed us to conduct the feasibility study. We are applying for Phase 2 to expand the LIQUAM reactor to industrial scale, while improving the electronics and usability. With LIQUAM, our clients will be able to sell premium honey at a 15-25% price increase, ensuring a return on investment in the first year of operation. We expect revenue of €17.7 million in 2024 and 1.62% of our available market.
High-power ultrasound delays honey crystallization. In a world first, the LIQUAM project uses high-power ultrasound technology in industrial honey processing, delaying crystallization without compromising quality or beneficial attributes. Honey contains vitamins, minerals, and natural enzymes that give it antiviral, bacterial, and fungal properties. It is considered a good antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, promoting digestive health, stabilizing blood sugar, strengthening the immune system, and protecting against respiratory diseases. When extracted from honeycombs, honey is a semi-transparent, viscous fluid, but within a few weeks, its natural sugars, along with air bubbles, cause it to crystallize, discouraging consumers and jeopardizing fermentation. "Pre-treatment pasteurization can delay crystallization for up to 12 months after processing, but its extreme heat degrades the honey," notes Estela Pacheco, LIQUAM project coordinator and co-founder of Sonicat Systems, the project's host.
The project team had already developed a patented technology (LIQUAM) for honey processing and developed a minimum viable product (MVP) using high-power ultrasound (HPU). EU funding helped them further optimize their innovation into a prototype: LIQUAM450. “LIQUAM delays crystallization, but since the process never exceeds 55°C, the honey’s liquid state is prolonged without compromising quality or nutraceutical attributes,” explains Iratxe Perales, co-founder of Sonicat Systems. High-power ultrasound technology Pasteurizing honey typically heats it to around 80°C for 2–3 minutes, which melts the sugar microcrystals. The honey is then rapidly cooled to 45–50°C. Being heat-sensitive, this process degrades its quality, freshness, and nutraceutical properties. “For example, the antioxidant capacity of raw honey is reduced by about a third,” adds Perales. LIQUAM's high-power ultrasound alternates between low- and high-pressure waves, forming millions of tiny vacuum bubbles that grow until they violently collapse, transforming the shock waves into mechanical effects that break down the sugar crystals.
This phenomenon, called acoustic cavitation, can be used at room temperature. Testing times The team installed an improved version of their LIQUAM450 prototype for five months at an industrial food facility in Girona. “Microscopic images confirmed that LIQUAM achieves crystallization levels similar to pasteurization, reducing them to 0.01%. But crucially, this did not significantly affect moisture, hydroxymethylfurfural, or enzymes. These last two are important indicators of freshness,” notes Perales. Pollen particles, used to identify the botanical origin of honey, were also undamaged, and the honey remained liquid for a time comparable to pasteurized honey. While the LIQUAM project allowed the team to further optimize their product (scaling it up to industrial treatment rates, along with testing and CE certification of their LIQUAM450 prototype), issues with component sourcing in the EU meant that final assembly could not be completed in time. “Our initial prototype processed 100 kilograms per hour for €70,000, and the LIQUAM450 achieves this for €50,000. However, rising material and component costs have driven up our commercial price. Furthermore, the LIQUAM450 requires three times more energy than our previous MVP,” says Perales.
However, the team launched a product called www.honey-ai.com (Honey.AI), which comprises a digital microscope and uses computer vision and machine learning to automatically analyze honey. This includes detecting different types of pollen to accurately authenticate floral sources, with results in less than an hour. “We plan to offer this solution to the honey industry, generating business opportunities for LIQUAM. We will also expand Honey.AI to become an automated pollen analysis application,” Pacheco notes. Multiple benefits: LIQUAM contributes to stimulating sustainable food consumption while promoting healthy and affordable food.
Furthermore, it contributes to preserving and restoring European ecosystems and biodiversity, given that bees are responsible for approximately one-third of agricultural production. "LIQUAM also offers European beekeepers a way to add high value to their honey, differentiating it from low-priced imported foreign honey," adds Perales.
- MICROFY SYSTEMS SL (MICROFY)
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