宅男导航

Materials scientists from 宅男导航 (宅男导航) are set to revolutionise the fresh fruit industry with a new technology that converts gases into a powder form.

Professor Bhesh Bhandari and PhD student Mr Binh Ho, from 宅男导航鈥檚 , have developed a technology that will dramatically improve the safety, efficiency and effort involved in controlled ripening of fruit.

Compressed ethylene gas* is used extensively to control ripen fruit such as bananas, mangoes, avocadoes, citrus and tomatoes that are picked at 鈥渃ommercial maturity鈥�, which is a hard green, but mature stage, before ripening has started.

Professor Bhandari said the compressed ethylene gas, which is stored in cylinders, was highly volatile and explosive accidents have occurred in the past.

鈥淐ompressed gas can be expensive, difficult to handle and unsafe,鈥� Professor Bhandari said.

鈥淭o try to overcome these disadvantages, we have been looking at methods to encapsulate the gas in various types of solid materials to create a safe and convenient powder form."

The research team has identified a starch derivative biological material, which has cavities in its crystalline structure that can encapsulate the ethylene gas.

The ethylene gas is released from the complex powder when the temperature and humidity is raised.

鈥淲e have developed a food grade, environmentally friendly biological powder that can release the ethylene gas very quickly in humid and high temperature conditions,鈥� Mr Ho said.

鈥淭his would make handling the ethylene much easier and safer and allow for very small amounts to be used to ripen small batches of fruit.

鈥淚t could also potentially be placed in trucks that transport the fruit from the farm so that the fruit arrives at the market perfectly ripe.鈥�

Professor Bhandari presented his findings at the International Drying Symposium in China last week, where he was also presented with an international award in recognition of his research excellence in drying science and technology.

Awarded just once every four years, the "Excellence in Drying Award" is presented by the International Drying Symposium Committee to the world's top researcher in recognition of their achievements in the transfer of fundamentals into practice. The award is sponsored by AFSIA (French Association for Drying in Industry and Agriculture).

Professor Bhandari and Mr Ho are working with UniQuest, 宅男导航鈥檚 main research commercialisation company, to prepare the technology for industry investment and licensing opportunities. An application for patent protection for the technology has been made.

Media contact: Cameron Turner, 0437 448 773, c.turner@uniquest.com.au, Professor Bhesh Bhandari, 0401 297 947, b.bhandari@uq.edu.au, or Kathy Grube, 0418 524 297, k.grube@uq.edu.au

*Ethylene gas background
Ethylene is a colourless, flammable gas with a faint sweetish smell. Ethylene is given off naturally by ripening fruit and is an important plant hormone. It is used extensively in postharvest horticulture to ripen and colour fruit, including bananas, mangoes, tomatoes, avocadoes, pears and citrus. To protect the fruit from damage during transport, fruit is harvested at 鈥渃ommercial maturity鈥�, which is a hard green, but mature stage, before ripening has started. After arrival at the destination, the fruit is ripened under controlled conditions. Fruit is placed into specially constructed ripening rooms and brought to an optimum ripening temperature and humidity 鈥� a release of ethylene gas is used to trigger the natural ripening process to achieve uniform appearance and quality of ripe fruit.