Acceleration of maturity of young sorghum (kaoliang) spirits by linking nanogold photocatalyzed process to conventional biological aging-a kinetic approach: Accelerated maturation of young spirits

With an aim to effectively shorten the ageing period and reduce process cost, a nanogold photocatalyzed process was developed. This process successfully accelerated maturity of young sorghum spirit less than 120 min at ambient temperature. Process parameters relevant to process design were determined to be (1) the amount of acetic acid (≥1.53 g/100 ml); (2) an operation temperature ≤37°C; (3) a degree of mineralization ≤4.87%. Kinetic analysis indicated that to cautiously control dissolved oxygen (DO) to facilitate optimum production of hydroxyl free radical [-OH] could be a crucial step, while the kinetic equations elucidated to indicate production of ethyl acetate and acetic acid could be applicable to reactor scale-up. More importantly, this process provides several benefits including container-saving, spacesaving, labor-saving, and no storage-loss due to evaporation; hence, a huge amount of cost reduction (20-24%) in a 4-year aging period could be attainable for each batch cycle.