AGRANA Group
R&D in the
Sugar & Starch segments
Zuckerforschung Tulln Gesellschaft m.b.H. (ZFT) in Austria gives priority to research and development tasks in the sugar and starch sectors.
Within the Sugar area, the working focus of ZFT is on the development of new, environmentally friendly and energy-saving applications and processes. Because the economical use of processing aids within sugar production is becoming more and more important, the department of sugar technology started and implemented projects in recent years, to help to reduce the consumption of processing aids.
The most essential key areas of research are in the development of programmes and devices for:
- Optimising the dosage of anti-foaming agents (AFO - Anti Foam Optimiser).
- Development programmes for the reduction of limestone consumption (LIMOSTM - Lime Optimisation System) and savings of alkalinisation aids (LISA - Lime Salts Analyser). With the development of the LIMOSTM programme for the reduction of limestone, it was possible, for example, almost to halve the use of limestone on sugar production.
- A further development of LIMOS is the programme for optimising the dosage of milk of lime in juice purification, in order to achieve further savings in processing aids and energy.
- Development of natural antibacterials based on hops and resins, to be used in sugar production, instead of using chemical biocides, such as formaldehyde. Patented by ZFT, this application is currently not only being implemented in the sugar industry, but is also being expanded onto new domains.
Zuckerforschung Tulln has been accredited as a testing unit according to ÖNorm EN 17025 for the areas of field testing studies and analysing sugar beet and, furthermore, it has been authorised as an "officially recognised ZFT testing organisation" (pursuant to the 1997 Law on Pesticides) to test the effect of non-registered pesticides for beet farming.
Within the Starch area, our main goal is to develop new application fields for products based on starches and to adjust existing products to special applications. Continuous market monitoring and close co-operation with customers are foundations for the successful introduction of new products and technologies.
Work within the starch area concentrates on:
- Development of special starch products (potato starch, cornstarch, waxy maize-starch) by means of deriving physically and chemically for applications in various technical fields (paper, corrugated board, textiles, construction, ceramics, pharmaceuticals etc.).
- Practical technical investigations for widely different areas of technical applications.
- Development of innovative starch products for the construction sector.Bio-starches, AGRANA is the market leader in this area for applications e.g. in fruit preparations, mayonnaise, etc.
- In the area of bio-ethanol production: testing and development of wheat varieties that are richer in starch, for the production of bioethanol, and investigations to optimise the production process of bioethanol, in particular through speeding up fermentation, by means of adding special additives (e.g. complex nitrogen sources such as PNC - Potato Nitrogen Concentrate)