Introducing the SOUNDS FOOD Project: Ultrasonic Cleaning Meets Bio-based Chemistry
- sandramontero7
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Written by: Sean Hodgkinson, Sales Director
1. A new approach to cleaning food and beverage surfaces
Food and beverage processors face a daily challenge: cleaning large surfaces such as floors, walls, tanks, conveyors and fermentation vessels uses huge volumes of water, energy, hot caustic chemistry and labour. SOUNDS FOOD is a 36-month collaborative R&D project (1 June 2024 – 31 May 2027) co-funded by Innovate UK (Project 600624) and the Eureka Eurostars 3 programme (Reference 5092). Its goal is to develop a non-immersion ultrasonic cleaning system, powered by bio-based surfactants, that can clean large food-grade surfaces using a fraction of the water and chemistry of conventional pressure-washing methods.
2. Why we are doing this project
Manufacturers are under growing pressure to reduce water use, energy consumption and the environmental impact of cleaning operations. At the same time, sustainability targets across the supply chain are accelerating demand for greener cleaning technologies - including bio-based, readily biodegradable surfactants that do not compromise cleaning performance. SOUNDS FOOD directly addresses this challenge by combining non-immersion ultrasonic cleaning with Lankem’s BioLoop bio-based surfactant chemistry, aiming to deliver effective green cleaning with lower water and energy demand.
Ultrasonic cleaning methods offer exceptionally efficient cleaning; however, conventional immersion ultrasonic baths have a fundamental limitation - you can only clean what fits inside the tank. SOUNDS FOOD draws on prior research by Fundación Tekniker into non-immersion ultrasonic cleaning of solar heliostats, where a resonating band sonotrode delivers cavitation through a thin water film at the surface, achieving up to 99% relative reflectance with around 600 times less water than pressure jets. Our project asks the question: can the same principle be re-engineered for the much more demanding world of food contact surfaces — soiled with proteins, oils, sugars, tartrates and biofilms — and can it be paired with a new generation of bio-based surfactants to deliver a step-change in cleaning sustainability?
3. The consortium
SOUNDS FOOD brings together four complementary partners across the UK and Spain:
A&J TECNO INNOVACIONS S.L. (Spain) — Project Coordinator. Ultrasonic engineering specialists; responsible for the design, build and integration of the non-immersion ultrasonic cleaning module and the full cleaning equipment prototype.
Fundación Tekniker (Spain) — Technology research centre. Originators of the non-immersion ultrasonic cleaning principle; leading the laboratory-scale evaluation of bio-based surfactants under ultrasonic conditions.
Viña Costeira S.C.G. (Spain) — End-user from the wine sector. Defining the real-world use case (winery cleaning, including tartrate, oil and biological soils) and hosting field validation in a relevant industrial environment.
Lankem Ltd (UK) — Lead UK partner. Developing the BioLoop bio-based surfactant chemistry, the cleaning formulations and the regulatory and exploitation route to market.
4. Current achievements
The project is now in the third year, and major technical milestones are already in place. Highlights from the deliverables schedule include:
D1.1 — Requirements and specifications of the use case: delivered (Viña Costeira, January 2025).
D2.1 / D2.2 — Ultrasonic module design and first prototype: delivered (A&J TECNO, December 2025).
D3.1 — Bio-based surfactant prototype: delivered (Lankem, July 2025).
D3.2 — Study of the bio-based surfactant for non-immersion ultrasonic cleaning: delivered (Lankem, March 2026).
D4.1 — Complete cleaning equipment prototype: delivered (A&J TECNO, February 2026).
D4.3 — Experimental laboratory cleaning study: due August 2026 (A&J TECNO).
D5.1 — Outcomes of the non-immersion cleaning study in a relevant environment: due February 2027 (Viña Costeira).
D5.2 — Technical, economic and environmental impact report: due May 2027 (A&J TECNO).
On the Lankem side, the technical story is moving quickly. We have developed BioLoop variants based on soya, rapeseed and sunflower hydrophobes, with controlled loop sizes to tune detergency and stability. Detergency performance has been benchmarked using a standardised soil of motor oil, sunflower oil and winery tartar supplied by Viña Costeira. Under ultrasound, BioLoop 68L-PG outperforms water-only cleaning by a wide margin and benchmarks well against a fully formulated dishwash system. Ongoing work is focused on BioLoop stability in water at low temperature, and on food-contact regulatory compliance, which has now been formally added into Work Package 3.
5. Heading to Spain — 7 July 2026
Today, the consortium is meeting in person at the AJ TECNO facility in Valencia for the SOUNDS FOOD 3rd Year Meeting. Lankem will be represented by Dr Cathy Cooper, Technical Manager, who will present Lankem's Work Package 3 results on the BioLoop surfactants and walk the consortium through Lankem's exploitation plan. That plan covers direct BioLoop sales, licensing opportunities, joint go-to-market options with the ultrasonic equipment partners, and the regulatory pathway for food-contact use.
6. What comes next
Over the next 11 months we will move from laboratory bench to industrial relevance: continued lab-scale cleaning trials on real food-industry soils at Tekniker; integration of the BioLoop formulations into A&J TECNO's full cleaning prototype; pilot validation at Viña Costeira; and, in parallel, Lankem's commercial launch activity for BioLoop into detergents, I&I, and food and beverage cleaning markets.
7. BioLoop 68L-PG Significantly Enhances Ultrasonic Cleaning Performance
(Residual soil reduced to 0.6% compared with 71.8% using water alone.)
Test soil of motor oil, sunflower oil and winery tartar on steel discs – dried and conditioned in the oven. Disc then immersed in test solution for 10 min and rotated for a further 2 min with or without ultrasound. Mass of dried disc compared with starting mass to obtain the percentage soil removed.
Water Only | Water & Ultrasound | & Ultrasound |
71.8% w/w remaining | 22.4% w/w remaining | 0.6% w/w remaining |
SOUNDS FOOD is co-funded by Innovate UK (Project 600624) and the Eureka Eurostars 3 programme (Reference 5092). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the funding bodies.
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