SUCR’EAU

Funding

Summary

The potato processing industry is always looking for various opportunities to reuse their process water, and this in a cost-efficient way, so that both water and, if possible, energy can be saved. The main goal of this project is to develop a collective strategy in collaboration between knowledge institutions (and facilitators) and industry by selecting, optimizing and demonstrating the suitable water treatment technology(s) for treating the process water of the 2nd blanching step (lower temperature, longer time). This processing step prevents browning and acrylamide formation by leaching, mainly, (reducing) sugars and starch. This step is also characterized for its high water consumption. 

By enabling the reuse of this purified process water, the project aims to reduce the total water consumption for the potato processing companies. Moreover, a sufficient (microbiological) safety and quality of the blanching water is guaranteed by a complete characterisation of the purified (possibly still warm) water, both before and after treatment. The valorisation of the obtained by-products such as the extracted sugars and/or starch will also be examined. With this project, we aim to gain new insights in different water technologies so that these may be introduced to other, non-participating companies in function of the characterisation of the sugary water flow. Or potentially even for other sectors, having a comparable (waste)water stream.

The project itself is a cooperative and applied project in a collaboration between Flanders' Food, watercircle.be and Ghent University, supported by Belgapom.

Partners

Duration

In the media

Researchers present their topic in the SUCR'EAU project.