In today's society, there is a clear demand for reducing and/or avoiding losses in the food industry. One of the sectors with the highest losses is the fruit sector, where approximately 40-50% is lost through the food chain.
A possible re-use for that fruit waste is to transform it into a functional biomaterial, such as fruit leather. This could also be an ecological alternative to animal leather, for which not only more than a billion animals are slaughtered every year, but which also produces enormous amounts of CO2 and consumes large amounts of water and toxic chemicals.
With this project, UC Limburg wants to investigate the possibilities of making a recyclable, compostable, bio-based leather material from apple and pear waste, which could eventually form a sound alternative to animal leather.
The focus was mainly on the development of a new material, starting from apple waste supplied by BelOrta and PiPo. We added the necessary non-fossil, natural and biodegradable additives and optimised the production process in order to obtain the most functional (strong, mould- and water-resistant) material possible.
UC Limburg
Partners UC Limburg, Belcool bvba, Truilingen bvba, MIA.H nv, Instituut voor Landbouw-, Visserij- en Voedingsonderzoek, Standsbestuur Genk, BelOrta, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, BE Vegan, UC Leuven, UHasselt
Sectors
At the moment, we are carrying out production in batches. A follow-up trajectory has been requested and approved in order to produce our product semi-continuously and on a larger scale via a pilot plant. We received a subsidy for this from the King Baudouin Foundation.
We also want to investigate the possibility of producing a functional hard biomaterial from apple waste. A subsidy for this has been obtained from PWO.
In the coming years we will further valorise the expertise on circular economy and the development of circular materials, both within the PBA Chemistry programme and within our Sustainable Resources expertise cell.