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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MySpark (The Complete Solution for Fast and Cost-efficient Yeast Separation Process in Production of High Quality Sparkling Wine)

Teaser

Summary

1) The problem being addressed:
The innovation is a direct response to identified market need for radical improvement of the processing technologies in the production of high quality sparkling wine, which would head producers towards more efficient, effective and profitable production, allowing them to save time and costs and more efficiently respond to the growing demand for their high quality sparkling wines.

Producers of sparkling wine are currently confronted with a choice to produce either a) high volumes of low quality sparkling wine or b) lower volume of high quality sparkling wine. Although the global demand for high quality products is growing rapidly and the market price for high quality products on average reaches at least 5 times the price of low quality products, the production of high quality products is exposed to limited profitability as the producers are unable to respond to increasing every day demand. The key limiting factor in production of high quality sparkling wine is a rigid and time consuming process of removing the yeast sediment from the bottle, a mandatory step before the bottles can be shipped to the market. On top of that, the process requires implementation and maintenance of expensive separation equipment and carefully timed production of sufficient stock, to enable serving the annual peaks of demand. The later requires high spatial capacities for storing the finished products, leading to high additional costs of storage. The reduced ability to serve the day-to-day demand causes the producers of high quality sparkling wine to lose at least 30% of their potential sales.

2) Importance of the project
The latest trends on the sparkling wine market foresee a rising demand for high quality sparkling wines, which is bringing remarkable new opportunities to the producers. The shift in perception of sparkling wine from occasional and luxury to an everyday drink, increasing consumer awareness on the quality standards and rapid globalization of the market have driven the market to expand for 40% in only a decade. As the consumers are increasingly willing to spend larger share of their disposable income for more expensive, high quality wines, the particular growth is forseen for high quality sparkling wine market. However, the industry of high quality sparkling wine is confronted with a challenge to develop processing technologies, that would enable a more flexible, cost-efficient and simplified manufacturing process. The industry has been trying to tackle this challenges for a century, but has only been able to shorten the riddling time from 8 to approximatelly 1-2 weeks by introducing expensive riddling machinery in the early 1970s, which is still in use today. However, with the todayâ€™s rapid expansion of consumption, these challenges need to be resolved using more modern approach and fast.

MagYeast efficiently solves these challenges, by introducing the solution that:
1) requires only 30 minutes of time for separation (about 500 to 1000-times faster than the existing technologies),
2) is easy to apply to the production process, eliminating the need for a complex, multi-stage separation process and the need for implementation and maintenance of expensive separation equipment,
3) enables serving day-to-day demand instead of planning the production several months ahead and
4) lowers the overall production cost and increases profitability.

3) Overall objectives of the project
The main goal of the innovation project is to create added value for the producers of high quality sparkling wines, by introducing a novel processing technology for rapid separation of yeast. These challenges are common to all global producers of high quality sparkling wines. However, taking into account that 74% of the volume of world sparkling wine is produced in Europe, the project has a strong European dimension.

The overall objectives of the project are to verify feasibility of the project (Phase 1), fully develop (TRL

Work performed

The objective of the action was to evaluate feasibility for MagYeast, prototyped and patented modern processing solution, which allows rapid separation of the yeast from the sparkling wine bottle in as much as 30 minutes. The results of feasibility study will be exploited by upgrading our initial business plan, which will be used as a baseline for SME Instrument Phase 2 proposal. Feasibility study comprised of evaluation of technical, practical, market and economic feasibility.

The results achieved within the project:
1. Technical feasibility: the requirements for a large scale production of MagYeast are verified, work plan for construction of a large scale magnetic separation system is designed
2. Practical feasibility: producers\' requirements for adoption of MagYeast technology are verified, easy integration into existing production processes has been proven
3. Market feasibility: the needs of target segments have been thoroughly examined, best markets and industry segments for adoption of MagYeast have been identified, along with the IPR strategy for entering these markets
4. Economic viability of MagYeast for InoVine, potential partners and end-users: added value for producers has been calculated, financial projections have been revised and the investment requirements have been verified
5. Initial business plan has been updated according to the findings of feasibility study, and will be used as a baseline for SME-2 proposal.

Final results

Production of high quality sparkling wine is demanding and expensive, however, the global market and the demand for high quality sparkling wine is booming, with international trade expected to exceed 5 billion EUR by 2016 and global market CAGR at about 2,5% . The global production of sparkling wine has been the most profitable and rapidly growing segment within global beverage industry of the last decade . Although four methods of production exist, the production of high quality sparkling wine is only possible with the use of traditional method, where wine is fermented directly in the bottle, in order to ensure most profound contact with the yeast and generate the finest and most delicate aromas, tastes and bubbles. The key limiting factor in the use of traditional method is the current procedure of yeast removal (separation), which currently requires up to six weeks of riddling (fr. remuage - rotating and simultaneously inclining the bottle gradually until all the yeast cells settle into the neck of the bottle) . The riddling process is labour intensive, expensive, time consuming and limiting in terms of production. As a result, the producers struggle from high production costs (up to 1-2 EUR separation costs per bottle) , inefficient sales (app. 30% less sales due to inflexible and unreliable production), lower quality (the aging of the wine currently has to be interrupt 5-10 months prior the shippment) and lower overall production volume. MagYeast efficiently solves this problem, as it requires only 30 minutes of time (about 500 to 1000-times faster than the existing technologies), at an even lower overall cost of separation (less than 1 EUR / bottle).

MagYeast efficiently solves these challenges, by introducing the solution that:
1) requires only 30 minutes of time for separation (about 500 to 1000-times faster than the existing technologies),
2) is easy to apply to the production process, eliminating the need for a complex, multi-stage separation process and the need for implementation and maintenance of expensive separation equipment,
3) enables serving day-to-day demand instead of planning the production several months ahead and
4) lowers the overall production cost and increases profitability.