d-Limonene: extracting added value from waste citrus peel

Citrus waste disposal is a problem faced by many citrus juice plants, which up until recent times has left companies with the dilemma of whether to invest in costly feed mills. However, there is an alternative. JBT has developed several effective ways to get added value from waste citrus peel and by-products, with some offering very substantial financial benefits.

Exploring some of the alternatives to traditional citrus peel disposal is the focus of a JBT seminar to be delivered at the forthcoming 2018 Citrus Engineering Conference, which takes place on June 7 at the Citrus Research & Education Center Lake Alfred, Florida.

In a talk on alternatives to traditional feed mills, Jose Biot, JBT’s Global Technical Manager for Citrus Processing, will focus on some of the innovative options available from JBT for the recovery of potentially valuable by-products from citrus peel.

Waste solution Biot will tell delegates that traditional methods for disposing of waste citrus peel, such as feed mills, have become significantly less attractive over recent years due to rising energy operating costs required for investment in such projects. 

In particular, for small processors who generate peel volumes below the threshold typically required to make a feed mill investment profitable, taking care of the wet peel becomes a problem, with many resorting to paying to have it trucked out.

JBT’s T.A.S.T.E. Evaporator and, especially, READYGo™ d-LIMONENE are two systems that can be used by small processors to make more profitable use of citrus waste by extracting essential oils and other products from the peel.

d-Limonene, a natural organic solvent used in aroma industry and other sectors, is one of the most lucrative by-products of the citrus extraction process.

The oil component can be collected from leftover peel without having to make a significant investment using the JBT READYGo™ d-LIMONENE recovery unit; a system that boasts up to a 95% recovery efficiency rate.

The systems, Biot will say, enable small processors to handle a sticky problem through an interesting solution, which – in the case of the JBT READYGo d-Limonene system– can provide substantial revenues at current market prices.

Click HERE for the full conference programRead how Spain’s Zumos Palma (pictured above) benefited from JBT READYGo d-LIMONENE system