Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TOMAPAINT (Bioresin obtained from industrial tomato processing by-products)
Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2022-10-31
The global tomato processing industry generates approximately 1 million tons of waste i.e. tomato pomace mainly composed of skins, seeds, and vascular tissues. Total tomato production in the EU-28 was estimated at ~17.9 million tons in 2018, and each year the industry generates in excess of 300,000 tons of waste. Up until now, these residues have been used as a low value animal feed, or applied on the soil as a fertilizer, or disposed of as a solid waste at a cost to the processor (contributing to landfill and pollution). In as much as this is a missed business opportunity, it is also an environmental one.
While doing research in the library of SSICA, Tomapaint® co-founder & CEO, Angela Montanari, was struck by a paper entitled ‘Varnishes derived from gum resin extracted from tomato skins and their application to packaging for canned food’. From that moment she took on the mission to make this research usable by industry for exploiting these wastes to produce a valuable bioresin that is not only eco-sustainable but also a valid alternative to the synthetic equivalent. Thanks to this commitment and to 7 years of research, we had developed a proprietary process for extracting cutin from tomato peels in our pilot plant in Italy; and Tomapaint® was born.
Cutin is a natural polymer, polyester type, found in the cuticle of tomato skins and is the substance used to produce the organic-based lacquer. It is possible to extract the cutin regardless of the origin of the tomatoes and the type of peel. The cutin extraction process does not use organic solvents and is based on well-tested technologies, with high performance and productivity at relatively low costs. This process consists in the separation of the skins by flotation, in the thermal treatment of the skins in an alkaline solution, in the separation by centrifugation of a liquid solution, where the cutin is precipitated by acidification and separated by centrifugation. The resulting bioresin has excellent purity characteristics and high yields.
There is nothing like the Tomapaint® bioresin in the market today, and it opens up numerous high-value applications. The first application we are bringing to market thanks to the EIC Accelerator is a natural and safe biolacquer for metal food cans, and a sustainable substitute for conventional petrochemical-based lacquers, delivering significant environmental and health benefits.
While doing research in the library of SSICA, Tomapaint® co-founder & CEO, Angela Montanari, was struck by a paper entitled ‘Varnishes derived from gum resin extracted from tomato skins and their application to packaging for canned food’. From that moment she took on the mission to make this research usable by industry for exploiting these wastes to produce a valuable bioresin that is not only eco-sustainable but also a valid alternative to the synthetic equivalent. Thanks to this commitment and to 7 years of research, we had developed a proprietary process for extracting cutin from tomato peels in our pilot plant in Italy; and Tomapaint® was born.
Cutin is a natural polymer, polyester type, found in the cuticle of tomato skins and is the substance used to produce the organic-based lacquer. It is possible to extract the cutin regardless of the origin of the tomatoes and the type of peel. The cutin extraction process does not use organic solvents and is based on well-tested technologies, with high performance and productivity at relatively low costs. This process consists in the separation of the skins by flotation, in the thermal treatment of the skins in an alkaline solution, in the separation by centrifugation of a liquid solution, where the cutin is precipitated by acidification and separated by centrifugation. The resulting bioresin has excellent purity characteristics and high yields.
There is nothing like the Tomapaint® bioresin in the market today, and it opens up numerous high-value applications. The first application we are bringing to market thanks to the EIC Accelerator is a natural and safe biolacquer for metal food cans, and a sustainable substitute for conventional petrochemical-based lacquers, delivering significant environmental and health benefits.
Over the course of the two years of the EIC Accelerator, we have successfully upscaled up our batch pilot plant for cutin extraction from tomato peels to a continuous industrial plant. As such, we designed, built and assembled a new plant located in Canneto sull’Oglio in Italy's Lombardia region. Thanks to the optimisation efforts, the plant now has a capacity to produce 500t of cutin. Once we generate sufficient market demand, the plant will ultimately be capable of processing 1,500 tons of tomato waste a year and providing enough cutin to satisfy Italian, European and international markets.
The plant is equipped with a vanguard and scalable real-time monitoring solution, based on the Process Analytical Technology (PAT) paradigm for ensuring Quality-by-Design, which is important for obtaining a cutin of a standard quality, irrespective of the variability in the raw material, in this case tomato residues.
Importantly, over the course of the project, we have optimisted the plant for energy savings, for minimizing consumption of water and steam and for recovering the by-products of the process to increase the sustainability of our new process. Moreover, we have also studied alternative ways of the valorisation of the secondary fractions produced in the extraction process, in particular, the use of the seeds for the production of oil and the use of the exhausted peels for the production of bioplastics, thereby multiplying the impacts for the Circular Economy and moving towards zero waste. In fact, in 2022 we are proud to have obtained an official validation from the European Commission’s Impact Forecast Platform in relation with the environmental impact of our process and product.
The EIC Accelerator also afforded us with the opportunity to engage with end-clients and the necessary actors along the value chain, and to performs tests and explore different applications with the cutin samples produced from the new plant. As such, approximately 7 tons of cutin have been produced, and this has been used to develop new applications in different sectors, in collaboration with the University of Ferrara and with numerous private companies. A series of analyses, both chemical and chemical physical, have been performed on cutin to better understand its composition, stability and purity. Successfully application tests on industrial lines, or in field, have been carried out for food metal packaging, paper packaging sectors, cosmetics and agriculture. Laboratory tests are also ongoing in other promising sectors, such as wood paint, cultural heritage, ski equipment and diapers. Market interest is tangibilizing towards having the order book for 2023 complete by the close of 2022.
If you want to learn more about Tomapaint®, we invite you to visit out website: www.Tomapaint®.com, from where you can also watch our videos!
The plant is equipped with a vanguard and scalable real-time monitoring solution, based on the Process Analytical Technology (PAT) paradigm for ensuring Quality-by-Design, which is important for obtaining a cutin of a standard quality, irrespective of the variability in the raw material, in this case tomato residues.
Importantly, over the course of the project, we have optimisted the plant for energy savings, for minimizing consumption of water and steam and for recovering the by-products of the process to increase the sustainability of our new process. Moreover, we have also studied alternative ways of the valorisation of the secondary fractions produced in the extraction process, in particular, the use of the seeds for the production of oil and the use of the exhausted peels for the production of bioplastics, thereby multiplying the impacts for the Circular Economy and moving towards zero waste. In fact, in 2022 we are proud to have obtained an official validation from the European Commission’s Impact Forecast Platform in relation with the environmental impact of our process and product.
The EIC Accelerator also afforded us with the opportunity to engage with end-clients and the necessary actors along the value chain, and to performs tests and explore different applications with the cutin samples produced from the new plant. As such, approximately 7 tons of cutin have been produced, and this has been used to develop new applications in different sectors, in collaboration with the University of Ferrara and with numerous private companies. A series of analyses, both chemical and chemical physical, have been performed on cutin to better understand its composition, stability and purity. Successfully application tests on industrial lines, or in field, have been carried out for food metal packaging, paper packaging sectors, cosmetics and agriculture. Laboratory tests are also ongoing in other promising sectors, such as wood paint, cultural heritage, ski equipment and diapers. Market interest is tangibilizing towards having the order book for 2023 complete by the close of 2022.
If you want to learn more about Tomapaint®, we invite you to visit out website: www.Tomapaint®.com, from where you can also watch our videos!
Tomapaint® is a unique and patented process (details of which can be viewed at this link).
Tomapaint® is a truly high-impact market creating innovation: The Circular Value chains that will flourish around each plant will have a multi-million-euro impact on the local economies, resulting in new job creation, reduced wastes and increased resource efficiency and a model that is based on a self-regenerating economic system.
Moreover, Europe’s Green Deal aims to boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy, and in turn stop climate change, revert biodiversity loss and cut pollution towards climate neutrality by 2050. The Tomapaint® innovation contributes to 3 out of the 8 Sustainability Goals, namely: Mobilizing industry for a clean and circular economy; From ‘Farm to Fork’: designing a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system; A zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment. Indeed, thanks to the market availability of the Tomapaint® bioresin, the use of a sustainably-sourced, natural lacquer will make a significant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions, and to reducing resource consumption and related environmental impacts. Moreover, from a greener manufacturing context, our plant enables bioresin production with lower CO2 emissions and hazardous chemical use, compared to the production of current fossil fuel-based resins. Carbon emissions are -5kg for the production of 1 kg of cutin, compared to conventional coatings.
The Tomapaint® cutin-based bioresin will support the food industry in facing new mandatory legislation, such as the Single Use Plastic Directive, offering a natural solution with performance equivalent to synthetic products.
Not only driven by new legislation to reduce environmental impacts, but also by increased consumer sensitivity, more and more companies across diverse are turning to Tomapaint®, which demonstrates that the tangible possibilities of using our product as a substitute for petroleum-based products. The opportunities for business expansion are tremendous.
Tomapaint® is a truly high-impact market creating innovation: The Circular Value chains that will flourish around each plant will have a multi-million-euro impact on the local economies, resulting in new job creation, reduced wastes and increased resource efficiency and a model that is based on a self-regenerating economic system.
Moreover, Europe’s Green Deal aims to boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy, and in turn stop climate change, revert biodiversity loss and cut pollution towards climate neutrality by 2050. The Tomapaint® innovation contributes to 3 out of the 8 Sustainability Goals, namely: Mobilizing industry for a clean and circular economy; From ‘Farm to Fork’: designing a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system; A zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment. Indeed, thanks to the market availability of the Tomapaint® bioresin, the use of a sustainably-sourced, natural lacquer will make a significant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions, and to reducing resource consumption and related environmental impacts. Moreover, from a greener manufacturing context, our plant enables bioresin production with lower CO2 emissions and hazardous chemical use, compared to the production of current fossil fuel-based resins. Carbon emissions are -5kg for the production of 1 kg of cutin, compared to conventional coatings.
The Tomapaint® cutin-based bioresin will support the food industry in facing new mandatory legislation, such as the Single Use Plastic Directive, offering a natural solution with performance equivalent to synthetic products.
Not only driven by new legislation to reduce environmental impacts, but also by increased consumer sensitivity, more and more companies across diverse are turning to Tomapaint®, which demonstrates that the tangible possibilities of using our product as a substitute for petroleum-based products. The opportunities for business expansion are tremendous.