Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Atlantic Canada is internationally recognized for their apple industry. Due to unique cool-climate conditions,x000D
local apples have a distinctive phenolic profile, which determines their flavor and health benefits. Althoughx000D
most of the apples are sold as a fresh produce, a large portion undergo value-added processing to make applex000D
juice, apple cider and apple pies. Our industry partner, Apple Valley Foods is the largest pie manufacturer inx000D
Canada with a strong commitment to premium quality, energy savings and technology driven innovation. Thex000D
specific problem of Apple Valley is that their large production volume and high quality standards result in thex000D
generation of significant apple waste stream of more than 5 Million lbs annually. To address the problem ofx000D
waste stream management, the company is looking for innovative technologies for a value-added apple wastex000D
recovery. Based on a preliminary discussion between industry and university, a novel concept of a highlyx000D
efficient extraction of raw juice through cold-pressing and water evaporation was proposed. However, thex000D
concept is new and additional pilot scale research is required. This will be a first time partnership betweenx000D
Apple Valley and Dr. Alex Martynenko (Dalhousie University), who has significant expertise inx000D
low-temperature drying and evaporation. The goal of this project is investigate the efficiency of the materialx000D
and energy recovery, as well as scalability of a novel concept on the pilot-scale level. This project will take sixx000D
months and will benefit industry by minimizing risks of industrial scaling. The knowledge on energy efficiencyx000D
and apple juice quality gained in this project will be used for an industrial scaling of energy-efficient lowx000D
temperature evaporator. IP arising from this project will belong to Apple Valley Foods. It is expected thatx000D
commercial application of this research will allow Apple Valley to address both energy saving and currentx000D
waste management problems. The project implementation will demonstrate the potential of anx000D
industry-university collaborative effort for innovative process/product research and development, and boostx000D
technology transfer to other food industry stakeholders.