CHRYSALIS Project

CHRYSALIS is an applied research project that will allow the development of innovative products starting from waste materials deriving both from primary agricultural production and from agro-industrial activities, and through only sustainable processes, which will therefore aim to have minimum, if not even no use of chemistry.

CHRYSALIS will make it possible to identify processes to make the collection, treatment, conservation and transformation of agricultural and agro-industrial waste sustainable.
The products obtainable from the transformation of agricultural and agro-industrial waste are:

1. Antimicrobials: these are substances capable of contrasting, containing and in some cases completely eliminating the unwanted microbial load which is responsible for the qualitative deterioration of both fresh and processed agricultural products. The applied research will above all have the objective of testing the effectiveness of these substances, taking care to make them tasteless and odorless in order to avoid that they bring about variations in flavor and fragrance to both fresh and processed agricultural products being studied;
2. Nutraceuticals: these are food substances with proven beneficial and protective characteristics against both physical and psychological health of human beings.
3. Natural pesticides: these are substances used in agriculture to exercise control over plant diseases capable of compromising the crops of agricultural production.
   Applied research will also go to the verification of the use of plant masses already deprived of the above substances (antimicrobials, nutraceuticals and pesticides) in processes that allow their use in sectors that are showing a considerable and growing interest in products of natural origin i.e. packaging, cosmetics, textiles, green building, energy and agricultural sectors i.e.:
4. Packaging sector: use as functional packaging with reduced environmental impact with natural preservatives that safeguard the nutritional, hygienic and sensory characteristics of food by reducing the use of synthetic polymers and heavy metals in packaging with proven toxicity;
5. Cosmetic: or as ingredients of natural cosmetic products;
6. Textiles: or as constituents of vegetable fibers that can go to form yarns, to be used for the production of fabrics for special applications;
7. Green building and green architecture: through the use of environmentally friendly materials and techniques. The construction industry has a strong environmental impact due to the very high energy consumption, its emissions into the atmosphere, the unstoppable land consumption and the widespread use of materials of petrochemical origin which cause serious pollution problems throughout their life. life cycle. The primary purpose of green building and green architecture is to give construction a new direction aimed at respecting the needs of the environment;
8. Energy: for the production of oils and/or extracts having combustible characteristics or usable in combustion processes with the final objective of producing energy (electricity and/or heat) from renewable sources
9. Agricultural sector: suitably transformed agricultural waste can be used in agriculture as soil improvers or growth substrates.

The results of the CHRYSALIS project will be made public at the end of its execution, which will fall exactly 4 years from the date of stipulation of the definitive contract which took place on 27 October 2020. They will constitute a free source of experience and knowledge of which all companies active in the sector agricultural and agro-industrial will benefit. The sharing of these results has the aim of motivating other companies, as many as possible, to implement actions for the recovery and reuse of their production/processing waste, thus satisfying the requirement of circularity which represents one of the pillars at the base of the national ecological transition plan included in the PNRR.

The CHRYSALIS research project is included in the “Fruit and Vegetables IV, V range and beyond” Supply Chain Contract which sees the company Ortoromi soc. coop. agr.
The “Fruit and Vegetables IV, V range and beyond” Supply Chain Agreement was approved by the Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies last September 2020 (ref. MIPAAF – PQAI 03 – Prot. Exit N.9172458 of 09/25/2020) and is entered into on 27 October 2020.
With this publication the immediate implementation is confirmed and started.

Battipaglia, 3 November 2020