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!
