Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
Development of a Multipurpose Extruder/Press Food Processing System, Phase I
Project Description
Insta-Pro International, proposes the design and development of a versatile, compact, lightweight, energy efficient, and easy maintained seed processing equipment that can be operated in low gravity environments. The proposed equipment, a scale down refinement based on successful current large scale Insta-Pro processing systems, can be used for cooking, shaping, texturizating, dehydration, phase separation, and stabilization of crops such as rice, beans, peanuts and soybeans to support human planetary explorations. The equipment will be designed to use internally generated heat for processing food to reduce or eliminate the need for inherently inefficient heating from an external source. In addition, the equipment will be optimized to minimize the Equivalent System Mass (ESM) while maximizing the quality of the final product. Anticipated results for Phase I will be detailed plans for the design of the optimized food processing equipment attained by computational simulation of various concept designs . This optimum design will provide the basis for hardware development and testing in Phase II and the manufacture and marketing (in Phase III) to a wide array of users.
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Anticipated Benefits
Potential non-NASA commercial markets for the proposed multipurpose food processor include: federal agencies such as the Department of Defense food services; private sector markets such as commercial airline, rail, and maritime food preparation systems and the fast food industry, as well as institutions of higher education such as food engineering research and educational programs. Customized versions of the proposed processor has the potential to be commercialized as low capacity equipment to process seed materials available only in small quantities for organizations involved in biotechnological innovations, for small agribusiness in developing countries and for home use. The primary NASA application will be for cooking, forming and shelf life extension of food crops in long duration space missions such as Lunar or Martian mission. Additional applications include liquid extraction in a low gravity environment to produce vegetable oil from peanuts or soybeans as well as potential use for dehydration and volume reduction of wet solid foods, and heat treatment for microbial or enzyme inactivation to reduce biological hazards associated with wastes.
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Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
Johnson Space Center
(JSC)
|
Lead Organization | NASA Center | Houston, Texas |
| Triple F, Inc. | Supporting Organization | Industry | Des Moines, Iowa |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
Iowa
-
Texas
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This is a historic project that was completed before the creation of TechPort on October 1, 2012. Available data has been included. This record may contain less data than currently active projects.