Freeze drying has provided us with tasty dried fruits in muesli, long-life yoghurt cultures and many other important products. For the first time, using neutron beams from the Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) research neutron source, a team of scientists has now been able to show us the drying process in detail. The process engineering has thus gained a method of testing theoretical models in practice.

The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Neutron Source receives around 350,000 euros in funding from the EU to continue its cooperation with large-scale Russian research institutions. The project CREMLINplus was officially launched in Hamburg at the end of February.

Artificial membranes have been used for small- and large-scale industrial processes since the middle of the twentieth century, yet their inefficiency can make some processes relatively slow and expensive. Scientists have long sought to develop synthetic membranes that could match the selectivity and high-speed transport offered by their natural counterparts.