Introduction:

The study of beer pasteurization by free convection, due to the temperature difference between bottle wall and liquid, jointly with conduction, allows a better analysis of the process.

Objective:

The objective of this work is to determine the increment influence of equipment inlet beer temperature in temperature and velocity profiles, as well as in pasteurization units (PU), developed during the retention zone of temperature in pasteurization, taken into consideration biphasic fluid.

Materials and Methods:

The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is applied, using the software COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS v 5.1.

Results and Discussion:

Results are presented for three conditions of the beer inlet temperature: 5 ºC, which is recommended, 10 and 20 ºC. In all cases, lower velocities are obtained at bottle bottom and top, and higher velocities at the center. When the beer enters at temperatures above 5 ºC, in retention zone beer is exposed to pasteurization temperature for a longer time, so UP is reached higher than what is established.

Conclusions:

The variables analysis shows the negative influence of this increment in the PU, meaning a damage of beer quality.

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