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Towards a wireless sensor system for real‐time H 2 O 2 monitoring in aseptic food processes
Author(s) -
Kirchner Patrick,
Oberländer Jan,
Suso HenriPierre,
Rysstad Gunnar,
Keusgen Michael,
Schöning Michael J.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201200920
Subject(s) - laptop , wireless , wireless sensor network , embedded system , aseptic processing , computer science , base station , real time computing , control unit , computer hardware , electrical engineering , engineering , telecommunications , operating system , mechanical engineering
A wireless sensor system based on the industrial ZigBee standard for low‐rate wireless networking was developed that enables real‐time monitoring of gaseous H 2 O 2 during the package sterilization in aseptic food processes. The sensor system consists of a remote unit connected to a calorimetric gas sensor, which was already established in former works, and an external base unit connected to a laptop computer. The remote unit was built up by an XBee radio frequency (RF) module for data communication and a programmable system‐on‐chip controller to read out the sensor signal and process the sensor data, whereas the base unit is a second XBee RF module. For the rapid H 2 O 2 detection on various locations inside the package that has to be sterilized, a novel read‐out strategy of the calorimetric gas sensor was established, wherein the sensor response is measured within the short sterilization time and correlated with the present H 2 O 2 concentration. In an exemplary measurement application in an aseptic filling machinery, the suitability of the new, wireless sensor system was demonstrated, wherein the influence of the gas velocity on the H 2 O 2 distribution inside a package was determined and verified with microbiological tests.