Removing Oil from Fried Foods via Mechanical Process

Fried foods are delicious and enjoyed by almost everyone. However, they are not the healthiest foods to eat because of the amount of oil they contain. This thesis, sponsored by Moaero Company founder, Mr. Harrish Bhutani, intends to determine whether a simply designed centrifuge system can remove a reasonable amount of oil from fried foods after it has been deep fried without adversely affecting the texture of the fried food. Due to a large variety in the texture as well as the type of fried foods, and in order to keep the scope of this thesis more focused and feasible, the focus of this investigation will be French fries. Three variables are tested: the type of fry, the angular velocity of the centrifuge, and the time spent in the centrifuge. Multiple designs for the centrifuge system were made on SolidWorks. Engineer Equation Solver (EES) was used to aid steady state and transient heat transfer calculations. Minitab was used for statistical analysis. The impact of various parameters on the change in mass of the French fries, as a measure for evaluating the oil content, were studied. The results indicate whether a centrifuge will remove a reasonable amount of oil while also considering the integrity of the fries. The study concludes that centrifugation is be a cost-effective method for removing oil from fried foods

Temperature Controlled Packaging Container for Biologics and Pharmaceuticals

Clinical Supplies Management, Inc. (CSM) provides clinical trial services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies by shipping pharmaceuticals to clinics and other patients. In winter 2014, CSM presented a temperature control packaging project to the Cal Poly Senior Project class. As a result, three Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Students were tasked to design, manufacture, and qualify a shipping container that would maintain ten 10 mL vials between 2-8°C for 96 hours. The final product would have to cost less to ship than the Credo Cube, CSM’s current temperature control packaging product. After considerable research and analysis on possible temperature control technologies, it was determined that the most reliable and economical solution was similar technology to the Credo Cube. The main features of the product are as follows: Vacuum Insulated Paneling (VIP) is used as a thermal resistor to reduce the heat transfer from the surroundings to the payload Phase change material (PCM) maintains the desired payload temperature An optimization for the specified payload was performed by creating designs to reduce the tare weight, and dimensional weight using the above technologies. During the manufacturing phase, the selected vendor for phase change material was unwilling to accommodate a lead time within the senior project’s scope. This was believed to be partially due to the low volume and direct competition of the potential product. CSM was in contact with the vendor, and it was decided that the legal steps needed to move forward with the selected PCM would be too far outside of the project’s scope. Consequently, it was decided between the project team and CSM that using water as a prototype PCM was acceptable. Instead of a final product, a proof of concept prototype and a calculator that would help CSM redesign the product if other VIP or PCM were to be pursued in the future acted as the final deliverables. Although the prototype was not able to maintain temperature within range for 96 hours, the design can easily be scaled to do so with further testing and the use of the provided calculator. The following report details the design, manufacture, and qualification of the shipping container prototype