Fermentation is a widely used process in the food industry for the production of alcohol, beer and enzymes. But keeping it under control can be time consuming. Now, instead of having to wait for analysis results from the lab, Belgian Manetco wants to bring the lab to the fermentor by developing a mobile device for continuous monitoring.

The so-called portable laboratory will take the form of a compact sensor, designed for direct connection to the fermentor and the cloud to allow continuous data collection with online follow-up.

In this way, food and beverage manufacturers will be able to improve their control and understanding of the fermentation process.

Manetco has partnered with freelance inventor Sami Yunus and bakery and confectionery company Puratos for this project.

Final project summary
Through this project, we validated the working principle of this new compact sensor and the possibility to measure the enzymatic concentration with a short response time.  This is important to connect this portable laboratory directly to a bioreactor, which is the final goal of the project.