Towards an online milk concentration sensor using ERT: Correlation of conductivity, temperature and composition Original Research Article

The milk powder production process is a multistage process in which the function of each stage affects the final product quality. Having accurate and multidimensional knowledge of the milk solution at different stages of the process is crucial in order to maintain satisfactory control of the process. Electrical resistance tomography (ERT) is a novel, robust and high speed method of process imaging. It has the potential to overcome the lack of online concentration sensors and provide multidimensional concentration information at various stages of the milk powder production process. In order to achieve this goal an accurate model is required to correlate the ERT’s multidimensional conductivity measurements to milk concentration/total solids content.