Objective
Whey is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and is considered a promising raw material for various commercial applications due to its high-value components (e.g. proteins) and its large availability. Around 81 million tons of liquid whey was produced by the approximately 150,000 European cheesemakers in EU-27 in 2011. However, according to the European Whey Products Association (EWPA), only 40% of the liquid whey in Europe is being processed for its utilization in food and human nutrition or in feed applications, while the rest is still being dumped into municipal sewages, mainly by SME dairies. As a liquid waste, whey treatment generates unavoidable costs of around €0.04 per liter. Hence, there is an urgent need to tackle this environmental problem and valorise whey by proposing innovative, energy efficient technologies, with low operational costs and high industrial yields that are able to ensure the economic viability of whey processing for European dairy SMEs.
In this context, our pan-European partnership of SMEs and RTDs from 7 Member States has identified the potential of a highly efficient, selective, gentle and economically attractive electro-membrane filtration (EMF) technology to enhance separation and concentration of proteins and protein peptides from whey. The efficient recovery of functional protein fractions through EMF technology will provide an important source of high-value natural food emulsifiers and protein supplements for various food formulations and nutritional applications, while providing an economic alternative to whey disposal and reducing the environmental impact of European SME dairies.
The EMF technology enhances the separation of molecules with similar weight but different charge and – compared to ultrafiltration – significantly increases filtration yields and reduces cleaning efforts, waste water and membrane replacement costs.
Impact: the proposed technology will provide a cost-effective method to separate protein fractions from whey, which will in the end increase the competitiveness of European SME cheesemakers. We estimate that whey sales of €20.98 million can be achieved within 6.5 years of project completion. By using Whey2Food technology, SME cheesemakers will significantly increase their income and positively contribute to reduce environmental impact.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering water treatment processes wastewater treatment processes
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science dairy
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-SME-2013
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
80686 MUNCHEN
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.