HELICAS

Innovative utilization strategies for sunflower biomass

 

HELICAS

EU-Projekt: COOP-CT-2005-017992
www.helicas-project.de



Sunflowers rank with soybean, rapeseed and peanut as one of the four most important annual crops grown for edible oil in Europe and worldwide.

The cultivated sunflower (Helianthus annus L.) is a plant of the family Asteraceae (Compositae). The term Helianthus derives from the Greek helios, meaning sun and anthos, meaning flower.

Traditionally sunflowers are grown to provide edible oil and food (seed oil or seeds as a snack). After harvesting the desired parts of the plant, the biomass material, such as stems and leaves, are usually disposed. Therefore, only a small percentage of the produced sunflower material is used (sunflower seeds) and more than 90% of the produced biomass is wasted. The farmers are not only loosing the invested resources for fertilisation, they also have to spend money and time for the disposal of the produced biomass. The disposal of huge quantities of sunflower biomass also implies undesirable environmental consequences. On the other hand, the press cake - which is a residue of the sunflower oil milling process - is simply used to feed pigs, with a low selling price.

This plant offers very interesting functional properties for other food and non-food applications. Pectins from sunflower-receptacles and bioactive material like flavonoids and essential oils can be obtained from Helianthus annuus, thus offering new opportunities for farmers and processing companies. Bio-cascading of sunflowers to new applications is the focus of HELICAS-Project. These aims are directly linked to the European economy as there are 450.000 farmers involved in this business.

 

 

sunflower (Helianthus anuus L.)

sunflower (Helianthus anuus L.) 

sunflower extract

sunflower extract 

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The industrial objectives of the HELICAS project can be summarised as follows:


  • To create higher and different income opportunities for the sunflower farmers and processors involved by identifying, screeening and selecting of several high potential and economic utilization options for solid residues from the sunflower biomass
  • Development of optimized production and processing methodology for the production of innovative products based on sunflower biomass.
  • To produce attractive novelties for the upcoming wellness-age
  • To stimulate eco-tourism


The environmental and social objectives of the HELICAS project are:


  • To save resources (fertilizers, energy, etc.) by obtaining a higher total yield out of sunflower biomass
  • To promote the recovery of all sunflower varieties that could provide special oils or increased concentrationof substances for the cosmetic, funktional food or wellness-industry
  • To develop new income alternatives and to create new jobs in rural areas, thus contributing to the necessary balance between these and urban areas


With the new valorisation methods, the overall performance of the involved sunflower farmers will be substantially improved: It should give them more flexibility and could reduce their dependency of partial subsidies.

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Partners:

Scientific Partners:

TTZ Bremerhaven (Project Coordination) www.ttz-bremerhaven.de

Alchemia-nova research Institute for Innovative Phyto Chemistry

Universitatea de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara Cluj-Napoka www.usamvcluj.ro

Szent Istvan Egyetem (University Gödöllö) www.sziu.hu

SME-Partners:

Sonnenblumenpark Tulbing www.sonnenblumenpark.at

Farmer Helmut Lamp S.C. COMCEREAL

Farmer Ramon Garcia-Martin Phytopatent

Primavera Life (Essential Oils and Cosmetics) www.primavera-life.de

ARGE Biofisch (Organic Fish Farming) www.biofisch.at

Ölmühle Fandler (Oil-Mill) www.fandler-oil.com