Michael Beyrer received a Master of Engineering in “Food technology” from the Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany, in 1991 and a PhD from the Technical University Berlin, Germany, in 2007, with a thesis on food process engineering, physics and structure. His interests include combined development of sustainable processes and equipment for the food industry, on the basis of understanding of process related physical, microbial and chemical transformations of food properties. He teaches “Food process engineering”, “Food physics” and “Food technology” at bachelor and master level. He is the head of the research group “Food and Natural Products”.
Michael Beyrer’s research is currently focused on following topics:
- Plant-based food: Designing of cooling dies for high moisture extrusion cooking; flow dynamics; flavour release; protein reactions; control loops in high moisture extrusion cooking
- Structuring of dairy proteins by combined thermal, mechanical, and electric effects: application of pulsed electric fields and cell design; fluid dynamics; crossflow filtration; characterization of protein properties; integration in powder manufacturing processes
- Food powder decontamination by cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) treatments: configuration and in-house design of CAP devices; inactivation kinetics of microbes in powders; minimization of plasma power; toxicological studies; analysis of physical food powder properties
- Flavour release kinetics: new experimental setup for the description of dynamics of the flavour release from liquids and solids; determining and modelling flavour release as a function of flavour molecule properties, the composition of the food matrix, processing parameters such as flow dynamics and thermal conditions
- Delivery systems of bioactive compounds: Advanced extraction methods, including superfine grinding and processing in electric fields; physical and chemical characterization of hetero-colloidal systems; functionality testing, including impacts on the gut microbiota
- Vacuum-steam-vacuum processing of powdered food: Engineering of fluidized bed reactors up to the pilot plant scale; kinetics of inactivation of microbes in powdered food; structure of powders and techno-functionality; heat transfer by condensation and evaporation in porous materials
- Non-thermal processing of foods
- Advanced training courses on emerging technologies