"Key technology of high-performance equipment for sterilization and filling of packaged food and its application", a NingboTech-participated project, won the second prize of the State Technological Invention Award in the National Science and Technology Awards Conference 2020 held at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, on November 3rd.
ZHOU Jianwei, teacher of the School of Mechatronics and Energy Engineering, participated in the project. This is the first time that NingboTech won the State Science and Technology Awards.
This world-leading technology has been applied successfully in well-known enterprises at home and abroad such as Yili, Mengniu, Bright Dairy & Food, Danone and Nestlé. It has been exported to 46 countries such as Canada and Australia, creating a newly added output value of 4.769 billion yuan and a profit of 531 million yuan. It has had the largest domestic market share of the dairy machinery industry for five years in a row, and is the largest exporter in China of food sterilization equipment. The technique has turned China from a sheer importer to an exporter of sterilization equipment, and enabled China to make high-end aseptic filling devices, thus yielding enormous economic and social benefits.
As one of the principal participants, Zhou Jianwei created the design software capable of optimizing parameters in thermal sterilization process. He also put forward a convenient model able to predict the F-value based on the transient temperature difference penetration coefficient, and developed an intelligent sterilization control system by using AI technologies such as neural networks and Genetic Algorithm, thus realizing self-adaptive accurate sterilization.
Notes: Dr. Zhou Jianwei, Associate Professor and a master's supervisor of Zhejiang University, serves as Secretary General of the Committee of Packing Dynamics, the Chinese Society of Vibration Engineering, Deputy Secretary General of the Committee of Packaging Engineering, China Packaging Federation, and member of several professional organizations such as the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology and the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society. Mainly engaged in research on food processing, packaging and equipment, he has led many projects including the sub-project of the "12th Five-Year" National Science and Technology Support Program. He has won several awards including the first prize of Zhejiang Science and Technology Awards and the first prize of Science and Technology Awards of China Light Industry Council. In addition, he has published more than 50 academic papers in domestic and foreign journals including 30 SCI- or EI-indexed ones.
