Project description
Sustainable calcium source for food products
Strict environmental regulations in calcium carbonate mining, which is among the most impacting extraction activities, lead to research on alternative sources of this mineral. ICECAL founding team has detected that the shell of the ocean quahog clam, which is neglected by fisheries and disposed of as waste, is a pure (99.9 %) calcium carbonate. The company created a processing line with an accurate quality control system for mass extraction of the calcium from the clam. The product will reach the market as calcium carbonate powder for calcium fortification of food products. The EU-funded BLUECAL project will target the health/convenience food market, allowing the reactivation of ocean quahog fisheries in Iceland.
Objective
Calcium carbonate mines are one of the most impacting extraction activities, so stricter environmental regulations are pushing research for alternative sources of this mineral, of wide use in a variety of industries.
ICECAL founding team have been involved for over 15 years in the valorization of ocean resources. The shell of the Ocean Quahog Clam, which is neglected by fisheries and disposed as waste on land and sea, is almost pure (99.9%) calcium carbonate. We have built a processing line including an accurate quality control system for mass extraction of calcium from this clam to commercialize, calcium carbonate powder for calcium fortification of food products. The commercial name is BLUECAL. ICECAL production process consumes 95% less water and at least 30% less energy in form of electricity than extraction from mines.
We will target first the market of food products for convenience wellness, a €31 Billion business opportunity. BLUECAL incorporated to foods like bars, snacks can serve as ideal delivery systems for the bone-building nutrient, without any negative impact to the texture or taste. Consumers are opting for nutritive convenience foods and nutritionally fortified foods in place of traditional convenience and junk foods. The consumers of these products are willing to pay a price premium on the account of all-natural ingredients, making calcium fortification with BLUECAL a competitive advantage for our target customers.
BLUECAL will allow the reactivation in Iceland of the otherwise non-profitable ocean quahog fisheries, highly sustainable but which have ceased activity due to sharp reduction of clam market prices as seafood. The supply of the shell to ICECAL will provide 100% increase in harbor value, making these fisheries lucrative instead of zero profit industry.This model will be exported to other countries with Ocean Quahog fisheries and thus, with high potential for profiting from this otherwise undervalued resource.
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.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries fisheries
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering control systems
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry inorganic compounds
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry alkaline earth metals
- 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.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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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.
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.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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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.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
270 MOSFELLSBAER
Iceland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
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.