Project description
A new, efficient way to clean food containers
More than half of all the food we eat passes through the global cold chain, which consists of a series of artificially cooled spaces like refrigerated shipping containers. As many as 5 million food transport containers are used daily in Europe. Cleaning and disinfection is a big job that is time consuming and expensive. The EU-funded Optainer project will bring to market a water recycling system for washing, rinsing and drying the containers. Belgium’s LVP Engineering & Constructions company has designed the Optainer. It is slated to increase productivity by 60 %, treating up to 40 containers per hour (double the number using standard solutions) with no need to heat water for sanitation.
Objective
The cleaning thermic insulated containers used for safe and efficient transportation of temperature-controlled goods is a crucial step in food operations. It requires a high degree of cleanliness and drying efficiency to ensure the hygienic conditions for safe product transportation. Nowadays, several methods have been proposed to clean insulated containers but considered technically limited. They can only wash efficiently outside and not inside of the box which compromises the hygienic conditions. And, when they do, the drying step is often neglected leaving biological hazard into the containers. Moreover, they are time consuming, expensive (requires person to operate) and face an important issue of excess water usage (over 46L per container). The sanitizing process also currently requires hot water (65°C) to remove bacteria which further increases cost and energy use. Driven by the increasing concern of supermarket retailers, LVP Engineering & Constructions has designed and developed Optainer: An automatic water-recycling Wash&Dry station for insulated containers sanitation. Our innovative recycling system will reduce over 97% of water consumption. It will increase productivity by 60% disposing of 40 containers per hours vs 20 with standard solutions and reduce energy consumption with no need of heating water for sanitation. It will fully answer supermarket retailers’ specification for a more efficient, economic, easily to operate, safer and water efficient solution to insulated container sanitation. Since 2005, our company has been developing standard automatic washing installation for insulated containers with an important German retailer throughout the EU. Well aware of the need, our Optainer project has the potential to extend our customer portfolio and, thus, increase our revenue. We expect from Optainer commercialisation an accumulated turnover of €30 million with €10.2 million accumulated profit (ROI of 3.2) and foresee to create 21 new jobs by 2026.
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.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
- social sciences economics and business business and management business models
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
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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.
9140 Temse
Belgium
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.