Electrified

Drying process represents 15-25% of all energy used in the processing industry. This number is expected to become higher due to the intensified use of biomass. Therefore, sustainable food and biobased processing are necessary in order to replace our current evaporative technologies with ones that employ more effective driving forces. The ELECTRIFIED project will use electric driving force to extract water from biomaterials. This will be done by making use of a combination of molecularly designed electroresponsive hydrogels, well-controlled electro-osmosis and electrohydrodynamic drying. A wide consortium constituted by Wageningen University (coordinator), Delft University of Technology, University of Twente, University of Groningen, Eindhoven University of Technology, Avebe, Corbion, Cosun, VNP, DSM will ensure the practical relevance of these technologies. From RUG side, the group of Dr. Vasilis Kyriakou from ENTEG will work to elucidate electrocatalytic and interfacial phenomena during electrochemical dewatering process in order to design efficient and stable electrodes of low cost. The project is funded by NWO through KIC-Key Technologies program and the participating industrial partners.