TÜBİTAK Supports BTÜ's Food Project

TUBITAK Support for BTU's Food Project Bursa Technical University (BTU), Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), Associate Professor Dr. Rasim Alper Oral from the Food Engineering Department's project titled "Encapsulator Device System Design and Capsule Production Optimization" will receive support under TUBITAK 1002 Rapid Support Program. The project titled "Encapsulator Device System Design and Capsule Production Optimization" was prepared by Associate Professor Dr. Rasim Alper Oral from the Food Engineering Department at Bursa Technical University (BTU), Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS). The project included Professor Dr. Kemal Sarıoğlu from Erciyes University Food Engineering Department and Research Assistant Hüseyin Demircan from Bursa Technical University Food Engineering Department as researchers. The project, which concerns encapsulation technology that extends the shelf life of food products, was deemed eligible for support by TUBITAK 1002 Rapid Support Program following evaluations.

BTU's Encapsulator Project Qualifies for TUBITAK Support

The project titled "Encapsulator Device System Design and Capsule Production Optimization," prepared by Associate Professor Dr. Rasim Alper Oral and featuring Professor Dr. Kemal Sarıoğlu and Research Assistant Hüseyin Demircan as researchers, will benefit from support provided under TUBITAK 1002 Rapid Support Program. The project that qualifies for support concerns encapsulation technology. Encapsulation technology offers numerous benefits in food products such as extending shelf life, increasing nutritional value, and shortening maturation periods.

Increased Demand for Encapsulation Anticipated

Associate Professor Dr. Rasim Alper Oral provided explanations about the project prepared. Speaking about encapsulation, a technology gaining increasing importance today, Oral stated that it is anticipated that demand for encapsulation from food companies and consumers will increase due to the numerous advantages and benefits it provides in the food sector. Oral stated that one master's student will also participate as a scholarship recipient in the project titled "Encapsulator Device System Design and Capsule Production Optimization," and added: "Encapsulation is a physical coating process in which active material is surrounded by wall material and isolated partially or completely in capsule form. The resulting capsules can be used in different fields such as food, agriculture, biotechnology, textiles, chemicals, animal feed, medicine, and veterinary science. In this regard, the importance of an encapsulator device with low cost, suitable for industrial production capacity and characteristics is also increasing."

Support for Domestic Production and National Economy

Oral noted that encapsulator devices are currently imported and have very high costs. Oral said: "With the encapsulator device system we have designed under our project scope, high-capacity capsule production will become possible, and thus we will provide support to domestic production and the national economy." Oral stated that the designed device also provides the capability to produce capsules in different sizes, adding: "The device, with its magnetic field effect, will be conducive to producing droplets in smaller sizes. The fact that each produced capsule is uniform in all process parameters can be considered an important advantage. Furthermore, its structure allowing for modification of flow rate, frequency and amplitude parameters enables capsule production in different sizes. Additionally, the device can be designed to allow feeding from a single manifold as well as enabling each nozzle to be fed from a different reservoir."

Patent Application Filed

Oral noted that they have filed a patent application for the encapsulator system designed under the project scope and have passed the initial phase. Oral also stated that the project's successful outputs will pave the way for designing much larger capacity (pilot and industrial-scale) devices and that it could be continued in the future as a TUBITAK Technology and Innovation Support Programs Presidency (TEYDEB) project.