Could carrot fibre be new material for sports gear?
07/08/2015
As part of a European Union research project, Scottish company Cellucomp developed a method to obtain nanofibres from carrot waste and Empa has analysed whether its development would be viable and cost effective.
It said its methods enable companies to simulate possible scenarios and avoid bad investments.
Empa said: “In the case of the carrot waste nanofibres, it is crucial whether fresh carrots or carrot waste (fibre waste from the juicing process) are used as the base material for production. The issue of whether the solvent is ultimately recycled or burned affects the production costs. And the energy balance depends on how the enzymes that loosen the fibres from the carrots are deactivated. In the lab, this takes place via heat; for production on an industrial level, the use of bleaching agents would be more cost-effective.”
Cellucomp announced a partnership with Dutch farmers in 2012.
Share this story:
