Energy optimization of bread baking process undergoing quality constraints

International home energy rating regulations are forcing to use efficient cooking equipment and processes towards energy saving and sustainability. For this reason gas ovens are replaced by the electric ones, to get the highest energy rating. Due to this fact, the study of the technologies related to the energy efficiency in cooking is increasingly developing. Indeed, big industries are working to the energy optimization of their processes since decades, while there is still a lot of room in energy optimization of single household appliances. The achievement of a higher efficiency can have a big impact on the society only if the use of modern equipment gets widespread. The combination of several energy sources (e.g. forced convection, irradiation, microwave, etc.) and their optimization is an emerging target for oven manufacturers towards optimal oven design. In this work, an energy consumption analysis and optimization is applied to the case of bread baking. Each source of energy gets the due importance and the process conditions are compared. A basic quality standard is guaranteed by taking into account some quality markers, which are relevant based on a consumer viewpoint. - Highlights: • Energy optimization is based on a validated finite-element model for bread baking. • Quality parameters for the product acceptability are introduced as constraints. • Dynamic optimization leads to 20% energy saving compared to non-optimized case. • The approach is applicable to many products, quality parameters, thermal processes. • Other heating processes can be easily integrated in the presented model.