Objective
DIC (Instantaneous Controlled Pressure Drop) is a new technology in the drying, sterilisation, and micro-texturisation processes. It greatly improves the quality of treated products without increasing the cost. The environmental impact is also especially positive. A first industrial application has been created using vegetables to produce instant soups. This process showed promising results at both technological and economical levels. The reaction of the international market (Japanese, American) has been particularly positive.
This operation permits by self-vaporisation, after a quick thermal treatment (HTST lasting about 10 seconds), a controlled alveolation of biological products. It can be used in several types of treatment; drying, texturisation, extraction, sterilisation, and other thermal treatments. A research programme started in 1987, initiated by Karim Allaf the inventor of DIC technology, involving fifteen industrial users and an equipment supplier has already proved the feasibility of this operation at the laboratory level. The research was conducted at the LMTAI (Laboratoire Maîtrise des Technologies Agro-Industrielles) of La Rochelle. In the food and pharmaceutical sectors over a range of about fifty products including (fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, cereals, rice, pasta), non food plants (tobacco), pharmaceutical products (gel, proteins, vaccine), and aromatic plants have been tested. In all cases, the DIC appears to be the best, indeed the only answer, to the combination low cost/high quality.
The objectives of the project were to:
- realise the transfer of DIC technology to the food and pharmaceutical industries toward a continuous semi-industrial scale installation permitting to scale up the processes, to obtain new projects, and to define adequate equipment
- fabricate new DIC products in sufficient quantity for market studies and uses and assure technological support adapted to SMEs ever since the launching of the industrialisation;
- minimise the technological and economical risks specific in the emergent technologies in order to increase the international competitiveness of European industries and SMEs.
The transfer to the industrial level will assure a technological and strategic advance to these sectors. It will permit the European Union to become highly competitive in the field of food drying (which represents more than 40% of the whole drying industry) and the fields of sterilisation and micro-texturisation, industries still dominated by the United States and Asia. In the case of fresh fruit drying, there could be an energy saving of more than 60,000,000 kWh per year for an industrial production of 4000t/year of dried products, compared with freeze drying.
Today, the company Abcar-DIC Process has been created in order to:
- conclude engineering and feasibility studies for the various industrial applications of the DIC technology
- supply DIC equipment through automated standardised reactors (capacity from 50kg/hour to 6 tons/hour)
- manage usage licences and all the different patents of DIC.
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 agriculture horticulture fruit growing
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs vaccines
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture vegetable growing
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds cereals
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
Topic(s)
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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.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
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.
Coordinator
60205 COMPIEGNE
France
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.