Industry Development and Support

What do we do?

The Rapid Analytical Methods (RAMS) project at the AWRI is responsible for developing novel rapid methods that will be useful for industrial quality monitoring and/or for research purposes. The developed applications will be based on NIR, MIR, Vis and UV spectroscopy, as well as gas and liquid sensors (e.g. chemical sensors).

Some of the key areas in which the AWRI RAMS team have been active include:

1. The Cooperative Research Centre for Viticulture (CRCV) — activities within the program on Grape Quality, Characterisation and Objective Measurement (Program 1) to:
   • determine red-grape colour compositional analysis using Vis-NIR
   • commercialise calibrations for red grape compositional measurement using relatively cheap robust Vis-NIR instruments
   • identification and measurement of grape components which affect wine quality
   • develop a new analytical method to provide an indication of grape flavour potential (the Glycosyl-glucose (GG) assay)
   • develop methods to predict pH, total soluble solids and total phenolics in homogenised and whole grapes using Vis-NIR, and MIR
   These parameters have been shown to affect the wine flavour intensity and other sensory qualities of the finished wines derived from the grapes.
2. Education and training programs: Workshops and 'Roadshow' seminars have been organised and staged by the RAMS team. The team has also developed advanced workshops for training in the use of infrared and associated statistical and computer methods for the analysis of infrared prediction data — these can be customised to suit individual companies and even be presented in-house.
3. Commercialisation: A number of patents have been applied for and granted regarding the analysis of wines within intact bottles, standard NIR reference material and chemometric procedures (e.g. artificial neural networks).
4. Applied spectroscopy research: Working closely with industry, either through research projects with wineries or by supporting the AWRI Analytical Service laboratory in developing new rapid analytical infrared-based technologies.
5. Initiatives on process engineering and environmental monitoring: New project work has been planned as part of the AWRI's seven year RD&E plan — spectroscopic techniques feature heavily as a tool with the research stream of process measurement and improvement.

Some of the objectives of the current projects that are part of the AWRI's seven year RD&E plan are found here.