The EU27 annually generates 90 million tonnes of food waste, with a 39% generated in the manufacturing processes. The food processing industry critically needs sustainable solutions for waste valorisation and re-use. Our Proposition: DRALOD, a disruptive replicable drying process 100% environmentally-friendly and extremely cost-effective: - Environmentally: DRALOD uses renewables only, to allow valorisation of plant-origin waste into highly valuable functional ingredients as demanded by the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industry. - Cost-effectiveness: DRALOD drying plant has a pay-back period shorter than 6 years for an average plant with 35,000 tonnes/year capacity. Our Assets: - Consortium´s technological background: The Coordinator (PERNIA) is experienced in solar drying plants with licensing rights on a leading solar heating technology. OKOTHERM is specialist in the development and manufacturing of innovative biomass heating systems since 1995, while RTDPs DFBZ and RISE bring world-class knowledge for implementation of energy recovery and smart control units for DRALOD combined solar-biomass drying system. - Industry-driven vision: PERNIA´s turnover is over €2.2million in 2017, with a net profit increase growth of 32% with respect to 2016, operating in solar drying for BSG valorisation, evidencing a high potential. Target market: The generated volume of high-water content waste from plant-origin food processing, leads to an SAM estimated at €1,395 million in 2024. Business model: Commissioning of DRALOD drying plants under a franchise business model, designed to overcome the up-front investment barriers by lowering our customers´ required initial investment in 30%. Commercialisation strategy: The Brewery sector is our beachhead market. We currently work for the largest Spanish Brewery group. Our follow-on markets will include wineries, fruit juice and the olive oil sectors. Financial projections: 44 million € and 80 new direct jobs by 2024.

To contribute to catalyzing the transition towards a sustainable, circular economCircSyst, presents a series of shared Demonstration Experiences of new technological and societal adaptations to a Circular Economy involving 8 European regions: Valencia (SP), Maribor (SI), Flanders (BE), Gotland (SW), Paijat-Hame-Lahti (FI), Castila la Mancha (SP), Central Macedonia (EL), and Central and East Hungary (HU). The project focuses on three of the priority value chains of the Circular Economy Plan: Water Management, Biowaste, and Plastics and Packaging, as well as in the potential synergies among them. 4 Demonstrators are proposed developing and validating solutions for Water Management: 1 Reuse of industrial treated wastewater through on-demand treatment. 2 Agricultural industry and utilities uses for reclaimed urban water. 3 Smart wastewater management as a structural solution to water scarcity and floods in urban contexts. 4 Validation of a set of Integrated tools and methodologies for smart management of water symbiosis. In the Biowaste field the project will implement 2 Demonstrators dealing with waste from different sources and extracting valuable substances directly applicable in the other addressed value chains: 5 Flexible and intelligent biorefinery for the recovery of materials and components. 6 Valorisation routes of Food Industry Biowastes. In the Plastics and Packaging field, the project tackles main aspects of plastic waste management, including eco-design, cost-effective segregation, and recyclability: 7 Mechanical recycling of mPET. 8 Consumers engagement in plastics segregation 9 Food Packaging value chain redesign towards the substitution of plastics Work Packages on Communication & Dissemination, Knowledge Transfer, and Results Exploitation and Impact, are designed to ensure that that the results adequately reach key stakeholders in governments, private organizations, and civil society with the cooperation of the CCRI Coordination and Support Office.