About myself

During my bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering at the KIT, my enthusiasm for food process engineering was awakened. That's why I did my bachelor's thesis on high-pressure homogenization of melt emulsions at the LVT. Afterwards, I was able to gain experience as an intern in chocolate production at the confectionery producer August Storck KG. I then successfully completed my Master's degree at KIT. Since August 2022, I have been doing my doctorate at LVT as part of my work as a scientific researcher in the emulsification technology group. There I work on improving plant-based milk substitutes.

Research focus

Many milk and milk-based products are oil-in-water emulsions. These emulsions are thermodynamically unstable, which is why the oil and water phases separate over time. Emulsifying food components such as lecithin are therefore used to stabilize the interface. In milk, the triglyceride phase is crystalline and partially crystalline at room temperature, which contributes to its familiar mouthfeel. In contrast, in typical milk alternatives, the vegetable oils in the disperse phase are liquid at room temperature. The aim of my work is to improve product and process design in order to increase the stability and acceptance of plant-based food emulsions. To do this, I investigate the crystallization behavior of the plant-based triglyceride phase using plant-based emulsifiers and the presence of added minor components.

Methods

The emulsions are produced using rotor-stator systems, high-pressure homogenization or membrane emulsification. This enables droplet sizes of the dispersed phase to be achieved from a few nanometers to a few micrometers. The droplets are characterized using a polarization microscope equipped with a heating/cooling table. Crystallization processes can be examined at different heating and cooling rates (0.01 to 50 K/min). The polarization causes crystalline structures to appear green or yellow in the images taken, which allows them to be distinguished from colorless liquid droplets. I am interested in the direct observation of processes, and not, as is usually the case, the interpretation of incoming and outgoing information.

I also use oral tribology (friction theory) as a method to depict the mouthfeel of emulsions. The differences in crystallinity in the emulsions affect the friction behavior. The measuring method is used to record friction profiles by measuring the torque required for a defined rotation of a ball on plastic pins between which the emulsion is located. There is already a publication on this, see below.

Other methods: Dynamic differential calorimetry, rheology