Grape Pomace Powder Supplement Process Design

Technology Review

BSE 4125 Comprehensive Design Project

October 28, 2018

Team Grape Pomace

Members: Anna DiPietro, Chauncey Gatling, Aaron Tillar, Mary Tovillo

Advisors: Dr. Haibo Huang, Dr. Mary Leigh Wolfe

Introduction

Grape pomace, consisting of skins, seeds, and stems, is the main waste product of
wineries, comprising over 60% of the total solid waste generated by the wine industry. Beres et
al. (2017) explains that although grape pomace is considered as “waste,” it contains numerous
beneficial health properties and components, such as polyphenols, which act as antioxidants, and
dietary fiber. Innovations for grape pomace, such as flour and grape seed oil, are creative ways to
make use of grape pomace and its properties and eliminate the cost of disposing it in a landfill,
composting it, or burning it, as described by Prado et al. (2012). The key issue with current
process designs and novel uses of grape pomace is that they are unprofitable, due to the high
production cost of the processes and low demand for the products on the market as explained by
Dwyer et al. (2014). This project aims to design an efficient and economically viable process that
converts grape pomace to a powder supplement that can enrich food with antioxidants and fiber.

The goal of this project is to design an efficient and economically viable process through
the SuperPro Designer software that converts grape pomace to a powder supplement that can
enrich food with antioxidants and fiber. The end product should provide a safe, profitable food
additive that enhances and protects human health by increasing antioxidant and fiber intake. It
will also reduce environmental impact by eliminating wineries’ need to dispose of grape pomace
after production. The team must also evaluate existing market research on products similar to the
end product. In short, for the team to reach the goal, the designed process must produce an end
product that alleviates the grape pomace disposal issue and could be profitable to consumers on
the open market.

The end product, the powder supplement, has specific constraints that confines the scope
of the process. The first constraint is that not all of the grape pomace received from the winery
can be used in the process since they contain toxins or have no nutritional value. These
components must be removed from the pomace. The second constraint is that 100% efficiency is
not possible for extracting antioxidants, therefore, a percentage of valuable antioxidants will be
lost. Another constraint involves following the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards
and regulations to ensure the product is safe to consume. The last constraint involves the cost of
the unit operations. Every step of the process to produce the powder supplement will have a cost,

1
and the powder supplement must be sold for a price that covers these costs and more. This is to
ensure the process is profitable and economically feasible.

The end product and process must also satisfy certain criteria. First, at least 70% of the
grape pomace must be used in the process to produce the powder supplement. Second, at least
50% of antioxidants form the pomace must be present in the powder supplement. Third, the
powder supplement must satisfy at least 5 relevant American Society of Agricultural and
Biological Engineers (ASABE) or FDA standards or regulations in order to ensure the safety of
the powder supplement. Lastly, the powder supplement must be profitable enough to ensure a
payback period of less than 6 years as evaluated by SuperPro Design.

The final product of this design project will be a process designed through the SuperPro
Designer software that elaborates on the unit operations needed to turn grape pomace to the
powder supplement step by step. In order for the project to be considered a success, the powder
supplement produced by the designed SuperPro software must satisfy all of the constraints and
criteria.

Review of Technology
Possible Solutions for Grape Pomace

Over time, many companies and researchers have found solutions to the grape pomace
predicament. A few of these solutions are grape seed oil, animal feed, flour and baked goods.
Grape seed oil production is the most popular. Grape seed oil has been increasing in popularity
due to its phenolics, fatty acid composition, and antioxidant properties. Grape seed oil has been
used in a variety of products such as cooking, animal feed, cosmetics, and in a few cases,
pharmaceuticals. The two main ways grape seed oil is harvested from raw grape pomace are
solid-liquid extraction and mechanical pressing. In both cases, the only part of the pomace used
to make the oil are the seeds, leaving the rest of the pomace as a waste product. According to
Beres et al. (2017), solid-liquid extraction is the most popular method, due to its high yield of
95%. However, the solvent used in the process is the toxic chemical, hexane. Due to hexane’s
volatility, flammability, and toxicity, many issues can arise during production. One main concern
is the possibility of hexane leaching into the edible oils, which will cause adverse health effects
due to the compound’s toxicity. According to Lopes de Menezes et al. (2018), ethyl acetate and

2
dichloromethane can also be used as solvents in solid-liquid extraction to achieve high yields of
grape seed oil. However, leaching into the oil is still possible and both of these chemicals are
also hazardous if ingested. The second method of extraction explained by Beres et al. (2017)
involves pressing the grape seeds to obtain the oils. This method produces a more pure oil,
however, it produces a small yield between 1.35% and 6.66% as claimed by Prado et al. (2012).
Some companies use enzymatic treatments on the seeds to break down the cell walls to speed up
the process. However, it does not increase the yield by a substantial amount. Once the oil is
extracted, it can then be used in a variety of products. The most popular product is a substitute
for olive oil in cooking.
A second use for raw pomace is animal feed. Grape pomace has a high content of
phenolic compounds and fiber, creating a low digestibility. According to Heuzé et al. (2017),
some animals, such as ruminants, are able to consume the pomace. However, other animals, such
as pigs, should not be given pomace as a main food source. For the animals that are able to digest
the pomace, farmers have fed their livestock both fresh and dried pomace. The fresh pomace
must be consumed quickly as the moisture makes the pomace prone to spoilage. Dried pomace
allows for a long storage time during the off season. As reported by Sánchez et al. (2002), the
potential of grape pomace as animal feed is limited for ruminants due to its “very low nutritional
value and its antinutritional factors such as phenolic components that inhibit the ruminal
symbionts”. He explains that grape pomace may consist of up to 30% of the animal’s daily food,
yet the other 70% must consist of a more nutritional feed source. One concern with feeding
pomace to the livestock is its environmental impact. Any pomace left by the animal exposed to
the environment can cause groundwater pollution and foul odors.
A third solution for the pomace problem is its use in flour and baked goods. To create a
pomace flour, first the stems are removed. The pomace is then dried, ground, so it can be used in
small amounts as a substitute for flour in baked goods. In a study conducted by Walker et al.
(2014), bread, muffins, and brownies baked with varying amounts of grape pomace flour proved
to be a good source of antioxidant dietary fiber. Part of the study included around 14 different
categories of taste and texture tests, in which the pomace baked goods produced results very
similar to the control, or baked goods with regular flour. Walker et al. (2014) stated that one of
the few issues with the pomace baked goods is that the volunteers noticed it has a grainy texture.
A different experiment by Urquiaga et al. (2015) explored the intake of dietary fiber and

3
bioactive antioxidant compounds, such as polyphenols. The experiment was implemented by
using wine grape pomace flour as a functional ingredient in food to test if grape pomace can
decrease the development of metabolic syndromes and can assist in the prevention of
cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. The study lasted for 16 weeks and had 38 subjects, who all
had presence of metabolic syndrome in their bodies, such as elevated blood pressure,
hypertriglyceridemia and abdominal obesity. The subjects in this experiment had to incorporate
wine grape pomace flour into their diet. The experiment showed that the wine grape pomace
flour improved some components of metabolic syndrome, such as blood pressure and glycaemia.
A decrease in insulin levels, and an increase in antioxidant defenses were also apparent. The
study concluded that human consumption of grape pomace has potential to be used as a
preventative measure. This would help reduce metabolic syndromes that can lead to detrimental
diseases, such as cancer and diabetes.
A final possible solution is turning the bioactive compounds in the grape pomace into a
powder supplement. Dwyer et al. (2014) introduced a similar commercial product to the market;
it is an organic red wine grape skin powder called Bioflavia. This Canadian-based powder,
according to Southbrook Farms Limited (2018), claims to provide over 5,500 Oxygen Radical
Absorption Capacity (ORAC) units, which is a measure of a food’s ability to neutralize all five
free radicals found in the human body that causes degenerative diseases, such as cancer and
diabetes, with just an intake of five milligrams per day. As a powder, the consumer is able to
decide how they wish to consume the nutrients, such as incorporating it into their drinks or food.
The powder supplement can be utilized as a preventative measure for those in risk of having
cancer, diabetes and other degenerative diseases.
While all past solutions of the pomace predicament are novel, they all come with
disadvantages. The team’s proposed solution is turning the grape pomace into a shelf-stable,
fiber and antioxidant rich powder supplement. There were several factors that allowed the team
to make this decision. An important factor was the health benefits that come from the pomace
consumption, which were explored in a study of pomace in flour. Human consumption of grape
pomace proved to be beneficial to overall health, leading the team to decide to turn the pomace
into a food product. The next choice was the form in which the pomace will be consumed. As is,
the pomace contains a lot of water, making it costly to transport due to the extra weight it
contains. Therefore, the team wanted to dry the pomace into a powder. The unit operations

4
needed to create power out of pomace are quite simple which also influenced the decision.
Finally, the team chose to create a pomace powder supplement to be sold, on its own, in stores.
Selling the pomace as a powder supplement allows the product to be more versatile; the user will
be able to mix the powder into the medium of their choosing. This allows a larger population to
consume the pomace, as the user is in control of how they wish to consume the powder. Powder
supplements are gaining in popularity; GVR (2018) states, “The global demand [of dietary
supplements] in powdered form is set to witness a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of
10.8% from 2016 to 2024 on account of the rising market for energy-mix powders among athlete
and bodybuilders.” Since there is evidence to suggest that the demand for powder supplements
will continue, it is likely that a market for a grape pomace powder supplement to exist.
Therefore, the product should be able to be profitable, sealing the team’s decision on choosing to
create a grape pomace powder supplement.

Unit Operations for Design Problem

The raw material of grape pomace will be received from wineries. The general path of the
grape pomace through the unit operations would be drying, one or two extraction methods, and
then grinding the pomace into powder. The extracted nutrients, like polyphenols and fiber, will
be added back into the pomace powder. The extraction steps are present to take out impurities,
like residual alcohol and bacteria, from the winery process.

The grinding of the pomace may take place before or after the drying of the pomace,
depending upon future process design. As for the types of grinders available for grape pomace,
there are pulverizers, and attrition mills. According to Crump et al. (2018), there are two types of
pulverizers, air swept pulverizers and air impact pulverizers. Air swept pulverizers blow the
pomace into the grinding section of the pulverizer, where it gets ground. Air impact pulverizers
use air itself to break apart the pomace. Their advantages are that air is free, their scalability is
very high, and they create a homogenous blend (Crump et al., 2018). The disadvantage is that
they consume a lot of energy. Similarly, there are two commonly used types of attrition mills:
sand mills and tower mills. They both involve having the pomace scrape against each other or
against a rigid wall to reduce the pomace particle size (Crump et al., 2018). The sand mill
suspends the pomace in a liquid, to form a slurry, which is agitated in a chamber. There, the
pomace collides against itself and breaks apart. The smaller particles flow up the chamber
5
through a filter where they exit the chamber, while the larger particles stay at the bottom. The
feed to the tower mill enters straight into the grinding chamber, which is a rotating double helix
screw. The grinded pomace is then passed through two cyclone separators, which recycle
oversized material and allow the finer materials to exit. Their advantages are that they produce
finely ground products, and have many sizes available. Their disadvantages are that they
consume a lot of energy, and need specified feed size (Crump et al., 2018).

Another very important unit operation is drying. The pomace would be dried until the
moisture content is low enough to extract nutrients more efficiently through subsequent unit
operations. From Goula et al. (2016), the grape pomace was dried at 60℃ for 20 hours and kept
at -30℃ until used for the next unit operation. Then, the pomace was ground in a batch mill
grinder (Type A10, Janke and Kunkel, IKA Labortechnik, Germany) before putting the ground
pomace through an extraction method.

According to the Crump et al. (2018), the appropriate types of dryers that can be used to
dry grapes are the tray dryer, rotating drum dryer, and conveyor dryer. A tray dryer involves
maintaining constant temperature and uniform air velocity to have heated air flow evenly over
the grape pomace on stacked rectangular trays. A good quality of it is that it can process multiple
materials at once. On the other hand, it requires a lot of labor to manage, has a low drying rate,
and a small amount of space for the material. A rotating drum dryer has the feed enter on the
drum, or drums, which are heated by steam. The dried pomace is removed by knives that will
scrape it onto the conveyor belt to the next unit operation. The drum dryer’s advantages are that
it has a large drying capacity, relatively low cost, can contain a large variety of feed moistures,
and easy to operate. The drawback is that it is very large, so it takes up a lot of space. There are
multiple types of drum dryers: single drum, double drum, double drum vacuum, and twin drum.
The last dryer available for grape pomace is the conveyor dryer. It has several sections, each
section exposing the pomace to different conditions. At a chosen point down the conveyor, the
airflow is changed from up to down-flow to make sure the pomace is not blown off the conveyor.
Typically the last section is used for cooling the pomace. The conveyor dryer’s advantages are
that it can handle a variety of materials gently, precise condition control, flexible process design,
simplicity, and it is easy to clean and maintain. Its disadvantages are that the material must be
permeable, and arranged properly or it will dry unevenly. There are single conveyor dryers,
staged single conveyor dryers connected horizontally, and multiple conveyor dryers, which are
6
arranged vertically. All of this dryer information was from the Visual Encyclopedia of Chemical
Engineering (Crump et. al., 2018).

The next unit operation to be used is extraction. The most common method for extracting
polyphenols from grape pomace was solid-liquid extraction with agitation. Polyphenols are the
antioxidants to be extracted from the pomace. The yield of the extraction can be improved by the
manipulation of the solvent type, particle size, temperature, extraction time, and amount of
impurities. In particular, Beres et al. (2017) supported that using an organic solvent in an
aqueous solution will maximize the yield of polyphenol recovery. Beres et al. (2017) described
Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) as a more modern technique to extract polyphenols from
grape pomace. A supercritical state is when the fluid is both heated above its critical temperature
and pressurized above its critical pressure. Changing the temperature and pressure within the
supercritical state can alter the selectivity for a given target compound.
Goula et al. (2016) extracted polyphenols using ultrasound-assisted solid-liquid
extraction in pulsed mode. They used a VCX-130 Sonics and Materials (Danbury, CT, USA)
sonicator equipped with a Ti-Al-V sonoprobe (13 mm) and set at 130 W of max nominal output
power and 20 kHz of frequency. This method aggregates the polyphenols for removal by
agitating them. Through their experimentation in optimizing ultrasound-assisted extraction of
polyphenols, Goula et al. (2016) determined that the phenolic content of grape pomace decreased
by 87.0-95.4% after drying at 60-85℃ and higher temperatures would cause an even larger loss
of polyphenols. Conventional extraction procedures have up to 100 times longer extraction
times. The extraction yield was maximized in ethanol to >9.57 (mg GAE/g of dry pomace) by
increasing extraction temperature from 20 to 35℃, for about 10 minutes. This was accompanied
with amplitude levels up to ~40%, solvent/pomace ratio up to values around 18/1 mL/g, and
pulse duration/pulse interval ratio up to values around 8/6.
According to Beres et al. (2017), in agreement with another study from Goula et al.
(2016), the aqueous solutions of ethanol, methanol or acetone extracted more than single-solvent
systems for total phenols, especially ethanol. Since the process is for a food product, ethanol
must be the solvent used. Additionally, it is claimed that the most widely reported extraction
technique for polyphenols from grape pomace is solid-liquid extraction using mechanical
agitation.

7
 For dietary fiber, the main extraction method is hot water extraction. The extraction of
fiber from pomace can be done by a conventional solid-liquid process, which can be supported
by microwave or ultrasound technologies, or through the use of enzymes to disrupt the cell wall.
Beres et al. (2017) found that the best extraction yield was achieved with hydrochloric acid as
the solvent. The parameters for the most efficient extraction of fiber are hydrochloric acid at 0.4
mol/L, a substrate:solvent ratio of 1:12, a temperature below 75℃ and an extraction time of 90
minutes. This optimization yielded 47% soluble fiber. Ultrasound-assisted extraction has also
been used for fiber extraction. A yield of 32% fiber was achieved with ultrasound-assisted
extraction at 70℃. This was done for an hour in a hydrochloric acid solution at a pH of 2.0. A
more modern and environmentally friendly way of extracting fiber is through enzyme-assisted
extraction. The only issue with this is that the enzyme treatment and/or pre-treatment could break
down the cell wall of the pomace. Once the grinding is complete, the leftover pomace from all
extraction methods will be milled into a powder. This grinding will also leave in the insoluble
fiber that was not extracted by hot-water extraction, therefore the powder will have the
maximum amount of fiber.
Mixing the powder and nutrients back together will require another unit operation.
According to Al-Zoubi et al. (2018), the types of mixers to mix the polyphenols and fibers back
in would be solid-liquid mixers, as the polyphenol and fiber extracts would be liquid. The
appropriate mixers for mixing the powder and nutrients are extruders and tumblers. In an
extruder, the powder and nutrients are joined in the feed tunnel, which is extruded in the main
chamber that contain a rotating screw. Its advantages are that its capital cost and power
requirement are lower for single screws, and its mixing performance can be improved by using
additional accessory equipment. Some cons are that the single screw shearing is not vigorous,
and that single screw mixers are less effective than co-rotating and counter-rotating twin screw
mixers. Tumblers mix the liquid and powder gently by tumbling them about a horizontal axis in
a closed rotating container (Al-Zoubi et al., 2018). The pros of tumblers are that they can mix
large volumes (up to 200 m3), are easy to clean, durable, can gently mix particles, and have
precise quality. Its disadvantages are that it cannot break up agglomerates, very cohesive
mixtures, and it cannot be used in a continuous process.
The final product will be a powder with all the extracted nutrients from the pomace
mixed into it. That powder would preferably be odorless and tasteless, or add a desirable taste

8
and odor into the food or water that the powder would be mixed in. The product is untested, but
there is a chance that it could be very profitable due to the inexpensive nature of the unit
operations contained in the proposed process to produce the powder, and the potential valuable
dietary benefits gained from the use of the powder as a supplement.

Standards
When creating a consumer product, there needs to be a set of design and safety standards
and specifications to be followed to ensure that the people’s health is in a good condition and
that the product will yield consistent results. Here are some standards and specifications that the
team needs to consider throughout the process of the creation of the powder supplement. These
standards and specifications cover broad aspects of the production of the powder supplement.
These make sure that there aren’t any hazardous chemicals in the product throughout the process
to the unit operations to be utilized, such as the drying process.

Table 1. List of a few of the applicable standards for the final product and their descriptions.
Standards/Specifications Description

Hazard Analysis Critical Control
Point (HACCP)
Dietary Supplement Health and
Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA)
FDA (2018) described this as a management system
that is facilitated by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), where the biological, chemical and physical
hazards of the analysis and control of food safety are
controlled. The process starts from the raw material
production, procurement and handling, to
manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the
finished product.
Under this FDA (1994) regulation, manufacturers and
distributors of dietary supplements and dietary
ingredients are strictly controlled with the branding of
their marketing products to ensure that they are not
adulterated or misbranded. The evaluation of the safety
and labeling of the products are the producers’
responsibility before marketing.

9
 ASAE S269.5 OCT2012 (R2016): ASABE Standards (2016) stated that this standard
Densified Products for Bulk defines and establishes methods and procedures for
Handling — Definitions and measuring unit density, bulk density, durability and
Method moisture content for forage, woody crops, or other
fibrous and non-fibrous material for bulk handling in
the feed and non-feed industries.

ASAE D274.1 JAN1992 (R2017):
Flow of Grain and Seeds through
Orifices
ASAE S248.3 MAR1976 (R2015):
Construction and Rating of
Equipment for Drying Farm
Crops
This standard gives equations and graphs that can be
used to estimate the flow rate of specific grains and
oilseeds through horizontal and vertical orifices for
mass flow situations as explained by ASABE Standards
(2017). This can be used when separating the different
components of grape pomace, specifically the stems
away from the seeds and skins.
According to ASABE Standards (2015), this standard is
intended to promote uniformity, consistency, efficiency
and safety of the design, construction, and use of
heated-air crop dryers. This standard refers to
equipment that reduces the moisture content of grain,
hay and other farm crops that utilizes heated air or
artificially generated radiation.

Summary & Conclusions

Grape pomace, consisting of skins, seeds, and stems, leftover from wine production
generally ends up in landfills, causing environmental problems. This issue inspired companies to
find new ways to turn the pomace into a valuable product. Investigation of these possible
solutions, which include grape seed oil, animal feed, flour and baked goods, led to the conclusion
that a shelf-stable, fiber and antioxidant rich, powder supplement is the best solution to the
pomace predicament. The creation of this grape pomace powder involves several unit operations
such as drying, extraction or separation, and grinding. This review explored several different
kinds of unit operations, such as a tray dryer, rotating drum dryer, conveyor dryer, solid-liquid
extraction with agitation, supercritical fluid extraction, ultrasound-assisted solid-liquid
extraction, enzyme-assisted extraction, pulverizers, attrition mills, extruders and tumblers.

A tray dryer is a possible unit operation for the project as the equal sections in the trays
allows for uniform drying of the pomace. A tray dryer can process multiple materials at once;
however it has a low drying rate and requires lots of labor to operate. A second dryer explored is

10
a rotating drum dryer. This type of dryer is quite large and takes up a large area in the plant;
however, it is cheap, easy to operate, and efficient. A third drying option is a conveyor dryer. A
conveyor dryer is easy to maintain, gentle, and precise. While these are great advantages, this
dryer requires the wet material to be permeable, or uneven drying will occur. The process may
also need a device for extraction of the bioactive compounds. Solid-liquid extraction can be
executed with several different solvents; however, the most effective solvents tend to be harmful
and leach into the product. Enzyme-assisted extraction has shown to be successful; however,
specialized enzymes are generally very expensive. Using ultrasound-assisted solid-liquid
extraction allows for the use of a less dangerous solvent while still achieving results due to the
added help from the ultrasound. Research shows that ethanol is a safe alternative while still
achieving comparable results to some of the more hazardous chemicals such as hexane. The
process will also need a grinder to turn the pomace fragments into a powder. One category of
grinders are pulverizers, which have two types, air swept pulverizers and air impact pulverizers.
These grinders create a homogenous blend and are very easy to scale up. Another advantage of
both of these unit operations is that they require an input of air which is relatively inexpensive;
however, the energy input required is very high. A second category of grinders are attrition mills;
in which sand mills and tower mills were explored. These mills produce a finely ground product,
however they also consume a large amount of energy and require a specified feed particle size.
Depending on the order of the unit operations, a mixer may be needed to combine the powder
and any extracted nutrients. Some examples of mixers are extruders and tumblers. Extruders are
relatively inexpensive, and the yield can be improved by adding accessory equipment, like
another screw for shearing. However, single screw shearing is not very effective as the mixing is
not vigorous. On the other hand, tumblers are durable, easy to maintain, and can mix large
volumes. However, they can only be used in batch processes and have difficulty breaking up
aggregates. All chosen unit operations and their processes need to follow specific standards as
explained above to ensure the product is safe. Since the powder is a dietary supplement, the
process needs to take every precaution to ensure the safety of the public.

There are a few topics that require further investigation. While different possible unit
operations were explored, the team still needs to decide which machinery will better suit the
needs of the project. Since the bioactive compounds present in the pomace are extremely
important, the temperature and pressure of the unit operations needs to be researched in order to

11
minimize the loss of the compounds. A second topic needing further discussion is the need for an
extraction unit operation. The team needs to decide if the bioactive compounds should be
extracted from the pomace or if the grape pomace can be dried as is to become the powder.
Similarly, the order of the unit operations needs to be determined. This must be done in a way
that the yield of the bioactive compounds are high, while increasing efficiency and reducing cost.

12
References

ASABE Standards. (2015). S248.3: Construction and rating of equipment for drying farm crops.
St. Joseph, MI: ASABE. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.32004
ASABE Standards. (2016). S269.5: Densified products for bulk handling — definitions and
method. St. Joseph, MI: ASABE. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.42374
ASABE Standards. (2017). D274.1: Flow of grain and seeds through orifices. St. Joseph, MI:
ASABE. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.26846
Al-Zoubi, A., Barber, J., Naik, S., Wesorick, S., Wozniak, A., Palazzolo, J., Robertson, M.,
Kaplan, K., Roberts, A., Minbiole, K. (2018). Mixers. Vis. Encyclopedia of Chem. Eng.,
http://encyclopedia.che.engin.umich.edu/Pages/MaterialsHandling/Mixers/Mixers.html
Beres, C., Costa, G., Cabezudo, I., da Silva-James, N., Teles, A., Cruz, A., Mellinger-Silva, C.,
Tonon, R., Cabral, L., & Freitas, S. (2017). Towards integral utilization of grape pomace
from winemaking process. Waste Manag., 68, 581-594.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.07.017
Crump, M., Schlosser, M., Wesorick, S., Robertson, M., Kaplan, K., & Roberts, A., Cotton, S.,
Pleque, T. (2018). Size reduction. Vis. Encyclopedia of Chem. Eng.,
http://encyclopedia.che.engin.umich.edu/Pages/SeparationsChemical/Dryers/Dryers.html
Dwyer, K., Hosseinian, F., & Rod, M. (2014). The market potential of grape waste alternatives.
J. Food Res., 3(2), 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jfr.v3n2p91
FDA. (1994). DSHEA: Dietary supplement health and education act of 1994. Silver Spring, MD:
FDA. https://ods.od.nih.gov/About/DSHEA_Wording.aspx
FDA. (2018). HACCP: Hazard analysis critical control point. Silver Spring, MD: FDA. West
Conshohocken, PA: ASTM Int.
https://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/haccp/ucm2006810.htm
Goula, A., Thymiatis, K. and Kaderides, K. (2016). Valorization of grape pomace: drying
behavior and ultrasound extraction of phenolics. Food and Bioprod. Process., 100,
pp.132-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2016.06.016
GVR. (2018). Dietary supplements market size, share & trend analysis report by ingredient
(botanicals, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes), by product, by application, by
end-use, and segment forecasts, 2018 - 2024. Grand View Research.
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dietary-supplements-market

13
Heuzé, V., & Tran, G. (2017). Grape pomace. Feedipedia. https://www.feedipedia.org/node/692
Lopes de Menezes, M., Johann, G., Diório, A., Curvelo Pereira, N., Antonio da Silva, E. (2018).
Phenomenological determination of mass transfer parameters of oil extraction from grape
biomass waste. J. of Clean. Prod., 176: 130-139.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.128
Prado, J., Dalmolin, I., Carareto, N., Basso, R., Meirelles, A., Oliveira, J., V., Batista, E.,
Meireles, M., A. (2012). Supercritical fluid extraction of grape seed: process scale-up,
extract chemical composition and economic evaluation. J. of Food Eng., 109: 249-257.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2011.10.007
Sánchez, A., Ysunza, F., Beltrán-García, M., Esqueda, M. (2002). Biodegradation of viticulture
wastes by pleurotus: A source of microbial and human food and its potential use in
animal feeding. J. of Agric. and Food Chem., 50: 2537-2542.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf011308s
Southbrook Farms Limited. (2018). Antioxidants - maintaining a healthy lifestyle with
bioflavia. Southbrook Vineyards. https://www.southbrook.com/Bioflavia/Bioflavia-
Consumer/The-Science
Urquiaga, I., D’Acuña, S., Pérez, D., Dicenta, S., Echeverría, G., Rigotti, A. (2015). Wine grape
pomace flour improves blood pressure, fasting glucose and protein damage in humans: A
randomized controlled trial. Biol. Res., 48:49. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/10.1186/s40659-015-0040-9
Walker, R., Tseng, S., Cavender, G., Ross, A., Zhao, Y. (2014). Physicochemical, nutritional,
and sensory qualities of wine grape pomace fortified baked goods. J. of Food Sci., 79:
S1811-S1822. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/10.1111/1750-3841.12554

14
Appendices
Appendix A: Brainstorming Potential Design Solutions

Upon receiving the project, the team met to address initial questions and ideas for
solutions. Once the questions and possible solutions were written down, different questions and
topics were distributed among the members to conduct individual research. This brainstorming
session can be seen in the image below.

As seen above, the team had many questions at the start of the process. Some of these
include, “what is pomace”, “where does pomace come from”, “what process could be designed
to make it profitable”, and others. This brainstorming session allowed the team to begin the
project and determine the specific parameters of the task at hand. The session began with
identifying what the team needed to research, and any possible solutions that someone in the past
may have tried. These possible past solutions were then distributed for further research: Anna
researched artificial/natural food flavoring and medicine; Chauncey researched biofuel and
dietary fiber; Aaron researched animal feed and packing material; and Mary researched
cosmetics and olive oil/cooking products. Upon the completion of research, the team reviewed
their findings, discussed an appropriate solution to the pomace problem, and created a more
specific and refined list of questions. Further research was then conducted to determine the
proper technology needed for the idea to come to fruition.

15
 Appendix B: Challenges Encountered and Plans to Address

The team began the design process with brainstorming and researching many possible
solutions to the grape pomace problem. The process that we are designing to potentially solve the
pomace problem has presented a few challenges that the team must address to succeed. One
challenge is that there was difficulty in finding similar products to the powder supplement that
had credible sources and supporting studies. For example, Bioflavia, being a commercial
product, has gone through all FDA regulations needed to be sold to the public. This means that
Bioflavia’s process of taking grape pomace and using it to create a powder supplement was
efficient and safe. However, there aren’t a lot of published credible sources that can help assist
the team about the conversion of the grape pomace. The team couldn’t, therefore, use Bioflavia’s
information to the full extent for reference. Additionally, there are not a lot of similar products in
for a powder grape pomace supplement. The team had to research and study multiple different
products that uses grape pomace, such as grape seed oil, to determine the right process to create
the powder supplement.

The team must also determine how to meet FDA regulations and standards throughout
the conversion from grape pomace to the powder supplement. The proposed product would
eventually be sold to the public; therefore the team had to ensure that the product is not toxic or
harmful to the consumer. The team is brainstorming ways to create a test or experiment for each
unit operation and process path to control any hazards present in the product.

Another challenge that the team has is to find confirmed data that the powder supplement
would be profitable on the open market. The team has researched and determined that the
powder supplement is the most efficient and economically feasible out of all the other products
made of grape pomace. This is because the creation of the powder supplement does not involve
expensive unit operations and would utilize the bulk of the raw grape pomace. However, the lack
of credible information regarding the conversion of grape pomace to a powder supplement, there
is difficulty in determining the powder’s market potential. The team is planning on focusing on
using Bioflavia as a reference point and finding more information on it’s specific market to help
with the problem.

16
Appendix C: Project Timeline for Key Tasks

17
 Appendix D: Team Member Responsibilities

Overall Responsibilities
The team consists of four members. Each member has several responsibilities. One
obligation is attending all meetings and writing meeting notes in the project notebook. A second
team member duty is to conduct research on decided specific topics in question for that week.
The team then meets to discuss their findings and determine where information is lacking. Papers
and assignments are conducted in a similar fashion. The work for every assignment has been,
and will continue to be, divided equally among the members. Specific responsibilities for the
technology review are listed in the table below.

Technology Review Responsibilities

Tasks Team Member(s)

Cover Letter Mary, Anna

Cover Page Mary

Introduction Aaron

Review of Technology Mary, Anna, Chauncey, Aaron

Summary and Conclusion Anna

References Mary, Anna, Chauncey, Aaron

Appendix A Anna

Appendix B Aaron, Mary

Appendix C Mary

Appendix D Mary, Anna

18