Laborleitung
Prof. Dr. Mamadou Diakité Dean
Animal Food Technology/Product Development & Design
Introduction
Sustainability has become a central concept of social action and social responsibility worldwide. Climate change - in some cases with dramatic effects - has become tangible for everyone. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) status report published in 2013 reinforces the certainty that humans are very likely to be primarily responsible for the warming of the climate system. Therefore, our current economic practices and lifestyles cannot continue in the long term if we want to preserve our vital environmental resources.
In the age of climate change, colleges of applied sciences, universities and non-university research institutes remain the centres of thought for the sustainable design of our living space.
The food industry is already in a state of permanent upheaval. New nutritional trends, but also in particular the shift to sustainable and regional production play an overriding role here.
In order to meet the requirements regarding sustainability (see also issue Durchblick N| Magazin für Nachhaltigkeit of 01/2022)in the field of food technology, extrusion is the technology of choice. It replaces conventional technology by combining thermal and mechanical processes, so-called thermo-mechanical processes. The extrusion process alone unites the many individual processes into a single, continuous process and thus leads to a strong reduction in the processing steps or processing energy used and thus directly in CO2 emissions.
Food manufacturing companies in Germany are predominantly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which play an essential role in the overall economic structure. They are therefore an important factor in achieving climate neutrality, the attainment of which must be both economically and socially acceptable for today and tomorrow. The Department of Food Technology is closely networked with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and supports them in designing innovative, low-CO2 products and processes based on the extrusion process.
Objective of the project
The Centre for Sustainable Innovation and Technology Transfer (InnoCenT) focuses on SMEs because they are forced to innovate in the face of ever lower consumer prices that do not cover costs, but they do not have the necessary competitive research and development infrastructures. As a result, many ideas fail to be implemented from generation to market launch. The transfer strategy aims to put the challenges of mitigating global warming at the centre of innovation. Instead of CO2-intensive technologies, innovative technologies for mitigating global warming were integrated on a practical scale.
The aim is to use management-based knowledge and technology transfer to enable SMEs to set the EU's climate change mitigation targets as a benchmark for their own product and process developments. The ultimate goal is to anchor the development of low-CO2 products and processes in the corporate culture through process innovation, so that the companies can continue sustainably with this way of doing business for many years to come.
To this end, the Department of Food Technology at Fulda University of Applied Sciences set itself the goal of establishing a competent transfer centre for research, innovation and technology transfer in order to intensify cooperation with industry in the field of CO2-reducing technology transfer. The ultimate goal was to create a transfer platform that enables regional small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to design innovative, low-CO2 products and processes based on the extrusion process.
The "Centre for Sustainable Innovation and Technology Transfer" (InnoCenT) was realised in 3 steps.
- The development in the laboratory or pilot plant scale
- The pilot plant to carry out the transfer on an industrial scale
- The final industrial scale, which is carried out on a production plant in industry.
Steps 1 and 2 are tasks of the research and transfer platform of the Department of Food Technology at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. For the acquisition of the basic equipment and its operation, the Food Technology Department of the University of Applied Sciences applied for the ERDF project (No. 20007472 / funding amount: € 500,000) "Transfer Center Lebensmittel der Zukunft - TLZ" in 2020. Within the framework of this project, the necessary technical and personnel equipment for carrying out the development on a pilot plant scale was financed(see here for more information on the ERDF project). The project was started on 01.11.2020 and was successfully completed towards the end of 2022.
As part of the current application "Centre for Sustainable Innovation and Technology Transfer" (InnoCenT, REACT-EU project no. 20008791 / funding amount: € 1,000,000), a pilot plant for extrusion as well as the necessary peripherals were purchased in order to transfer the results generated by the current ERDF project "TLZ- Transfer Centre Food of the Future" on an industrial scale, taking into account sustainability criteria (so-called "scale up"). In this way, TLZ andInnoCenT complement each other optimally and together create the conditions for sustainable and innovation-based research and transfer activities for the future generation.
Milestones and work packages
WP 1: Acquisition and set-up of the equipment
Acquisition of instrumental R&D infrastructure for industrial scale development activities (complete extrusion line) and for characterisation of process-related rheological and chemical properties of extruded products. Purchased were: A twin-screw extruder for full-scale extrusion of plant proteins, a fully equipped oscillation rheometer (DMA) combined with a Raman spectrometer (Rheo-Raman technology) and an inline NIR spectrometer for process characterisation. This phase lasted from the beginning of March 2022 to 31.12.2022 and included the performance of test measurements at various equipment manufacturers prior to the purchase decision, as well as tendering or purchase, delivery and installation of the infrastructure.
WP 2: Commissioning of the devices
After the installation of the devices, the commissioning and testing of the devices for functionality within the specification followed. As this is industry-related technology, this phase also took about 2-3 months and was successfully completed at the end of March 2023.
WP3: Development and transfer activities with industry
After a successful commissioning, the "InnoCenT" is now ready for development and transfer activities with industry. This includes prototype development and the optimisation of development processes at the centre, followed by technology transfer to industry, taking sustainability criteria into account.
The aim is to use management-based knowledge and technology transfer to enable SMEs to set the EU climate protection targets for curbing global warming as a benchmark for their own product and process developments. The ultimate goal is to anchor the development of low-carbon products and processes in the corporate culture through process innovation, so that companies can continue sustainably with this way of doing business for many years to come.
Course of the project
First, all equipment, i.e. extrusion line (including all peripheral devices), oscillation rheometer incl. Raman spectrometer and inline NIR were put out to tender. In order to present the current state of the art, a market survey was carried out and contacts were made with the leading manufacturers. Based on this, target-oriented specifications were drawn up, which drove the implementation of the project forward.
The heart of the project, the extrusion line, has high throughput rates, both in the low-moisture and high-moisture range. This pilot plant operates at industrial scales, driving scale-up. This makes the university attractive, especially for SMEs, in terms of sustainable and innovative product development, as everything from product ideas to prototypes can be implemented in the pilot plant. In order to be able to guarantee the site conditions of the facility, necessary structural measures had to be carried out. These structural measures all had to be carried out by specialist companies and were therefore very time-consuming. The extrusion line was then successfully set up and put into operation. The first large-scale extrusion of plant proteins took place on the extrusion line as early as week 16 (2023).
In addition to the competence of the industry-oriented production of a prototype, a solid analytical infrastructure was created in the course of the "InnoCenT" project. On the one hand, this enables textured products to be optimised, and on the other hand, the analyses serve to open up the complex interrelationships in relation to the texturisation of plant proteins. In order to be able to comprehend this complex property formation or to clarify the texturing mechanisms during wet extrusion, physicochemical characterisation methods are used both at the beginning and at the end of product development within the framework of this project. The combination of physical and chemical analysis methods such as rheology and Raman spectroscopy, morphology and chemical analysis (SEM-EDX) as well as extrusion and inline NIR characterisation for process optimisation is particularly innovative here.
A modern scientific workspace has been created for this purpose, and all construction measures have been successfully carried out by specialist companies. This creates a perfect scientific working atmosphere, with sufficient equipped workplaces where the scientists can concentrate on their research work. To ensure perfect measuring conditions, the room had to be fully air-conditioned and ventilated.
The oscillation rheometer is located in the scientific workroom. In order to be able to operate it properly, an adequate work table was purchased, whereby the accessories can be stored professionally. Due to the extensive accessories, product-process-structure-functionality interactions can be measured and interpreted. The oscillation rheomerter offers the possibility to simulate the process steps (heating and stirring), which also take place in the extruder, and to record the rheological changes during these steps. In addition, the sensory properties, such as the mouthfeel of a finished texturate, can also be determined and developed. To make both the measurement and the evaluation of the results consumer-friendly, the appropriate software package was included. During the training in week 15 (2023), the first inline measurements of vegetable proteins were carried out in order to be able to analyse the rheological processes during the heating and mixing process. Furthermore, the rheometer was extended with a Raman coupling so that the rheological properties can be linked to the chemical ones. This offers completely new possibilities in terms of research and product development, as the data are directly linked and not collected in isolation from each other. This allows new correlations to be captured and product development to be driven forward in an innovative way.
In addition to the peripheral analysis, the acquired inline NIR system offers various analysis tools during the extrusion process. Due to this, it is possible to analyse the composition during the process, which results in completely new insights. This combination of physicochemical analysis data during and after the process paves the way for innovative and successful research and product development.
Results
WP1: Acquisition and installation of the equipment
According to the current status, this work package is fully completed. All the equipment listed in the project has been procured and properly set up.
WP2: Commissioning of the equipment
All equipment has been commissioned and tested for functionality within the specification. The instruction of the staff has also been implemented for the most part. Any training days that are still missing will be scheduled soon after the first research work has been carried out on the equipment, in order to have another intensive exchange with the manufacturers.
WP3: Development and transfer activities with industry
This work package is still at the beginning, although initial research work is already taking place. The aim is to publish the results generated and to put Fulda University of Applied Sciences in the spotlight with regard to extrusion expertise. Furthermore, it is also being considered to integrate the extrusion line as a fixed component in the "Product Development" module. It is also conceivable to recruit a scientific employee as an interface in the future, who on the one hand looks after the systems and generates third-party funding, and on the other hand looks after and promotes cooperation with industry. By creating the production and analytics infrastructure, all the foundations for the platform have been laid. Due to the already existing cooperation, especially with regional industrial partners, there are already initial ideas to further expand and strengthen the regional research centre.