Evaluating Heat Release Rate in Oenological Fermentation: An Innovative Methodology

Abstract

The food industry consumes a substantial amount of energy with a large portion dedicated to product heat treatments. Thus, enhancing the efficiency of thermal operations could significantly decrease energy demand, reduce costs, and mitigate pollution in this sector. This is particularly applicable in vinification, where the grape must's temperature is crucial to the final wine quality. In this process, the energy required for fermentative thermostating constitutes a majority of the total energy expenditure. Furthermore, the thermal management of fermenting grape must is influenced by the heat released during the fermentation process. Therefore, understanding the precise distribution of heat release during fermentation could considerably improve the energy efficiency of this production. This study proposes and validates a methodology to achieve this objective. The approach is based on the inverse problem technique, which utilizes temperature measurements of the fermenting product. The validation of this technique shows promising results, indicating the potential applicability of our proposed method.