READYGo d-LIMONENE helps Spanish juice company add value

Zumosol is one of the best known orange juice brands on the Spanish market, easily recognizable to shoppers in supermarkets and grocery stores up and down the country for its quality. But a far less well known - but significant - fact about Zumosol brand owner Zumos Palma is it has emerged as an innovator in the extraction of valuable citrus byproduct d-Limonene, thanks to a long-standing collaboration with JBT.

Part of Turkey-based multinational Toksöz Group since its separation from former parent company Leche Pascual in 2013, Zumos Palma is based in Palma del Río in the southern, Andalusian province of Cordoba. Some 90% of the business is focused on orange juice, of which around 40% juice extracted from the annual 120,000 tonnes processed by the factory is sold under the Zumosol brand.

As managing director Juan Martinez explains, Zumos Palma has maintained a long-term, fruitful relationship with JBT since the Spanish business was initially established in 2003.

“We have had a long relationship with JBT, stretching right back to the establishment of Zumos Palma,” he says. “In our factory, the whole process of juice extraction and gathering of by-products takes place using JBT products.

“Virtually all of the equipment we use comes from JBT, from the receipt of fruit to the extraction of juice, and the recovery of by-products such as d-Limonene and fruit pulp takes place using JBT technology.”

Adding value When Martinez joined Zumos Palma in 2013, he had already become aware of the interest d-Limonene was receiving as a product in the juice sector and its potential worth, and decided to install the firm’s first READYGo d-LIMONENE system. “Since we installed it, the unit has functioned very well - it’s easy to use and the results have been very positive to such a degree that in 2017 we decided to install a second unit,” he recalls.

“We also carried out a study into the economic results delivered by the technology, and from a financial point of view they have been very positive.”

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The second machine, Martinez continues, is being installed with a slightly different focus in mind. Whereas the first READYGo d-LIMONENE unit was used to recover d-Limonene from the emulsion derived from the orange juice extraction process, the second will be used to recover d-Limonene by pressing orange peel.

The recovered d-Limonene, says Martinez, is sold primarily to companies working in the perfume industry, as well as for use as aromas.

“The READYGo d-LIMONENE enables us to put a value on a product that until now was not recovered, meaning your results as a business can become more attractive because it is an additional value that you are able to extract from the fruit,” he concludes.