Implementation of a cascaded use of stone-fruit residual-mass - Practice-oriented planning for installing a pilot plant for manufacturing marketable products

Status

completed

Motivation

BioCascading is a fundamental step towards efficient and profitable utilisation of renewable primary products. To achieve this, strategies and technologies for multipurpose utilisation of diverse structural, chemical and bioactive ingredients and materials are being developed. An outstanding example are fruit stones: in food production they are regarded as noisome waste; they sometimes are dried and later on burned, but in most cases they are disposed of by means of leaving them to rot somewhere out of the way.

Intended innovation

The NAWARO-CASCADING PILOT project has the goal of finding new ways to utilise fruit stones tand thus develop and demonstrate basic principles and technologies of cascading plant utilization. For that purpose, ways of collecting, breaking, separating, processing and formulating fruit stones (such as cherry, apricot, peach and prune) need to be developed, enriching components need to be defined and analysed, both food- and non-food-functions need to be screened and validated. Being cheap biological resources, fruit stones and their constituents can become a sustainable economic factor due to the newfound benefits of a professional utilisation cascade: the hard shells can be employed for innovative high-tech blasting, the soft insides as gourmet gastronomic specialities, high-quality oils, natural flavours and Spa novelties - think snacks and power bars, cherrypan, prunipan etc...

Methods

Cooperating closely with relevant companies it was clarified through research and hands-on expertise how the use of biogenous primary products (the stones) from fruit processing can be accomplished. The research center system was thus designed to master the manifold inputs of greenware (stones from cherries, apricots, peaches and prunes of different sizes). The process of breaking, cleaning, peeling, grinding and sieving is carried out in a flexible modular way of machinery construction, with the end product having to meet highest standards. This equally applies both to the micronised particles of blasting abrasives and to the soft cores of the stones that have to be undamaged and free from foreign matters. High quality food grade can be achieved uning special sorting equipment - presumably ultrasonic and laser technologies.

Project content and results

The stones of cherry, apricot, peach and prune are to be refined by a sophisticated processing technology so they become salable products. The market for these innovative products is still in the making, but the convincing quality of the products and several interested purchasers show its great prospects. Scientific, technical, product specific and economic bases for the machinability of fruit stones were researched and documented for the NAWARO-CASCADING PILOT project. The machines end engineering adequate for process management (washing, drying, breaking, peeling, cleaning) were elicited. In order to ensure a professional process for realisation of a small research factory components have to be adapted, combined to a small research plant and coordinated. Thus, the generated know how proves the process's functionality and enables the planning of a commercial large plant and its funding by motivated investors.

Project management

Dipl.-Chem. Univ.-Lekt. Hanswerner Mackwitz (deceased)

Project or cooperation partner

• Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Alfred Strigl, Univ-Lektor
  SUSANNE SCHEMITZ
  Dr. Wolfgang Stadlbauer
  Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Thomas Belazzi MAS
• Steirische Beerenobst reg.Gen.m.b.H, Lieboch
  TEAM Ing. Gruber GmbH, A-3434 Tulbing
  Gölles Schnapsbrennerei und Essigmanufaktur, A-8333 Riegersburg
  Olmühle Fandler GmbH, A-8225 Pöllau
  Lagler GmbH & Co KG, A- 7543 Kukmirn
  Ferschli Schnapsbrennerei und Likörerzeugung, A-8382 Krobotek
  Schokoladen-Manufaktur Zotter, A-8333 Riegersburg
  PSO (Produktionsgemeinschaft Sämereien Oststeiermark), A-8330 Feldbach, Wetzelsdorf
• Ing.-HTL Franz Prewein, Österreichische Vereinigung für Agrar-, Lebens- und Umweltwissenschaftliche Forschung
  Landwirtschaftsmeister Karl Geiger, Initiator "Sonnenblumenpark Tulbing"

DI Johannes Kisser
alchemia-nova OG Forschungsinstitut für innovative Phytochemie & Kreislaufwirtschaft
Baumgartenstraße 93
A-1140 Wien
Tel.: +43 (1)810 1000
Fax: +43 (1)810 1010
E-Mail: office@alchemia-nova.net
www.alchemia-nova.net