a) What is the problem/issue being addressed?
Bread making, as a century old tradition in the EU, is one of the most important business activities in the baking sector. In order to sustainably boost energy efficiency levels in ovens and achieve higher product quality and customer satisfaction, improving the heat transfer process during the baking is essential. Currently, a fast increasing number of industrial and small bakeries are using the “baked on stones” approach due to higher quality and consumer acceptance reasons. However, these “stone” baking plates have proofed to fail under energy and resource efficiency terms.
Nowadays, standard “stone” baking plates are made from concrete and supported by glass fiber reinforcement. They are widely used in the baking industry, despite presenting several disadvantages for the end-users: Standard “stone” baking plates offer poor heat transfer values and long heating up periods. Besides, due to their continuous use, structural weakening and destruction of the plates occur. Short after few baking operations and as they are exposed to temperatures of 300-350°C, “stone” plates begin to lose their stability, which results in cracks that lead to further deterioration of thermal conductivity, visible glass fibers and, therefore, reduced quality of the products. It is for this reason that the plates need to be changed, in average, every 4-5 years.
In short, the current baking plates made from concrete are energy inefficient, have a low life expectancy and reduce the quality of the end products. Consequently, in order to achieve higher energy efficiency during the baking process and higher product quality, it is crucial to improve the heat transfer process, and so, our SME has developed a durable and energy-efficient baking plate for eco-innovative and resource-efficient backing applications.
b) Why is it important for society?
As previously mentioned, the well-known “stone” baking plates have poor thermal performance (low heat transfer values and long heating up periods), soon become unstable and need to be replaced every 4-5 years. Besides, although the European bakery industry is one of the most important sectors in the food industry, generating a turnover of over 110 billion €, bakeries are currently experiencing an increasing financial pressure due to escalating prices for raw materials and, particularly, energy. Bakeries are one of the branches of the food industry with the highest energy consumption and the increasing prices for electricity, natural gas or oil increase the financial burden for the bakeries day by day. Thus, energy costs have long become a critical factor for the production costs, especially for smaller bakeries.
In response to the technological drawbacks of the baking process, and contributing to enhancing the competitiveness of the European bakeries, our company proposes a cutting-edge, eco-friendly and reliable baking equipment based on the newest research findings in material and energy science, technological advances and software applications. By combining modern approaches from these fields, Thermoback comprises a full package of societal, environmental and economic benefits from market stimulation and green growth to environmental sustainability, energy and resource efficiency, food security and climate change resilience. The concept poses a novelty to bakery practice. Due to their characteristic manufacturing process, the plates are unbreakable and boast indefinite life expectancy (eliminating the added cost of replacing the plates every 4-5 years). Additionally, Thermoback offers energy savings of up to 25% to European craft and industry bakeries and an unlimited life span of the product, due to a firm, unbreakable ceramic bonding, which also leads to a reduction of the rejection rate of the baked goods from 15% to under 3%, supporting the concept of reduced food waste in Europe.
Once commercialized and implemented by producers of ovens from all over Europe, the Lipahl plates will lead to millions € of cost savings increasing productivity and competitiveness of the European baking industry of all sizes. Such resource- and energy-efficient solutions are welcome in sectors still dominated by SMEs where energy costs are crucial.
All in all, some of the most important ambitions of Thermoback include:
• Providing European bakers with tailor-made, energy efficient and long-lasting baking plates.
• Securing and creating new jobs in bakeries and bakery equipment manufactures.
• Reducing discard in the bakery production and limit the production of food waste.
• Allowing bakeries to produce high quality bread products for consumers at affordable prices.
• Reducing the energy costs of the baking process and, thus, make bakeries more independent from increasing energy prices.
c) What are the overall objectives?
The main objective of the innovative project is the market validation of the novel and energy-efficient Lipahl baking plate. Consequently, the following technical objectives have been set:
• Development of suitable and tailor-made baking plates for specific products.
• High stability of the plates (firm, unbreakable plates), indefinite life expectancy (no replacement needed, contrary to the current baking plates that must be changed every 4 to 5 years).
• Energy savings: at least 20% of the power consumption during the baking process can be saved compared with the use of conventional concrete baking plates.
• Time saving: the new plates reduce 25% of the time in the baking sequence compared to the conventional concrete baking plates, achieved by:
o Faster heat up of the plate (twice as fast).
o Reduced baking time (by 20%).
• Achievement of significant cost savings and strengthening of the competitiveness of the European baking industry due to the energy savings the use of Lipahl plates entails and by reducing plates´ maintenance costs, as one plate´s life span outruns that of an oven.
• Achievement of market leadership of our company in the field with significantly increased turnover, profit and employment opportunities.
• Obtaining of higher product quality of baked goods (no impurities with glass fibers).
