Project description
Your next vending machine beverage may be tastier and have a negligible carbon footprint
When you go to a restaurant and order a carbonated beverage that comes in a glass, the drink has been made in a vending machine by dissolving CO2 in water and mixing it with a syrup that has the remaining ingredients. Before this happens, water softeners are employed to remove most of the mineral content in water that can cause limescale build-up and corrosion in the machines. The Italian SME W.F. has developed LIMONA, a revolutionary technology that prevents and removes build-up without altering flavour while almost negating the carbon footprint and at half the cost of conventional methods. The EU-funded LIMONA project is helping the company fine-tune the technology and prepare it for commercialisation.
Objective
Water supply is generally defined as “hard”, as it presents a high mineral content, mostly Calcium and Magnesium, leached in the water from minerals in the aquifers. Although proper for human consumption, hard water is inadequate for use in equipment handling water due to its tendency to form limescale.
This is particularly relevant for the vending machines, where hard water is responsible for up to 70% of equipment failure. Water softeners, devices installed for the treatment and conversion of hard water into soft water, are therefore required, not only to prevent limescale build-up and corrosion, but also to ensure a premium quality of water when it is used in cold and hot beverages.
The traditional softening methods used for removing water hardness, i.e. ion-exchange and reverse osmosis, present however severe limitations: they are costly, use toxic chemicals, generate significant water waste and alter water pH and mineralization. For the 3.8 million vending machines present in Europe, this translates into 3million m3 of water lost and 8,000 tonnes of GHG emitted yearly!
To address this problem, our company W.F. expert in water treatment, is offering LIMONA, a new disruptive technology for vending machine able to remove and avoid scale formation while keeping water natural characteristics and pH for an optimum water taste. LIMONA does this in a cost-effective (-45%), eco-friendly (-90% footprint, 0 water waste, 0 chemicals), compact (500g) and durable (up to 3 years of operational lifetime) manner.
Expected to be launched in 2021 in the lucrative 65 billion€ global vending market (where Europe represents 23%), LIMONA will allow our company to grow sustainably, capturing accumulated profits worth 5.9 M€, a ROI ≥ 1.8 and creating +7 new jobs all within 5 years.
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.
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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.
42122 REGGIO EMILIA
Italy
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.