Endbericht (4.5 MB) - NachhaltigWirtschaften.at

NAWARO CASCADING PILOT
Endbericht
Short Summary
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.
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