Abstract
Newly brewed Baijiu often contains harmful substances such as mercaptan and methanol, which are spicy and harmful to health. At present, this is mainly solved by long-term cellaring, but this is faced with some problems such as a long cycle, high cost, high fire hazards and so on. Therefore, based on the principle of liquid jet cavitation explosion catalyzing the heterogeneous association of Baijiu molecules, this paper first developed the physical aging process and equipment without radiation and additives. Then, based on the traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of high-speed jet simulation, an N-CFD model which can accurately simulate the cavitation explosion catalytic process of high-speed jet of Baijiu was established by optimizing the three sub models of conservation, turbulence and VOF. Finally, the N-CFD model was used to optimize the distance between the nozzle and the reaction chamber wall of the new aging equipment. Through the 15 min aging experiment on 100 L Baijiu, the methanol concentration of Baijiu decreased by 68.14 ± 2.25%, and the concentration of ethyl acetate, ethyl lactate and ethyl palmitate increased from 6.105 ± 0.014, 3.498 ± 0.015 mg/L and 0.621 ± 0.010 mg/L to 6.332 ± 0.016, 4.868 ± 0.012 mg/L and 0.681 ± 0.008 mg/L. The results show that the aging technology equipment can adjust the self-coupling characteristics and dynamic characteristics of various molecules in Baijiu through high-speed jet, and catalyze the alternating phase transition and association of various molecules. Finally, the goal of high-efficiency and healthy aging Baijiu without additives was achieved, which helps the rapid and healthy development of the Baijiu brewing industry.