Simei 2022: the winners of the "Lucio Mastroberardino" Innovation…

The best solutions in terms of technical progress and, from this year, sustainability with the debut of the "Green" category have been selected for the "Lucio Mastroberardino Innovation Challenge SIMEI 2022.

Material recovery, reduced consumption and energy saving, but also versatility, traceability and process optimisation. This is the recipe for the future of the beverage sector by SIMEI, the world’s leading international exhibition of wine-making and bottling machinery organised by the Unione Italiana Vini (15-18 November, Fiera Milano - Rho).

Again this year for the 29th edition, the best solutions in terms of technical progress and, from this year, sustainability with the debut of the “Green” category have been selected for the “Lucio Mastroberardino Innovation Challenge SIMEI 2022”. The winning companies will receive their awards during the inaugural event of SIMEI 2022, due to be held on Tuesday 15 November (11.00, Conference Room Hall 2).

This year, the most ground-breaking innovations in the sector selected by the Technical-Scientific Committee for the Technology Innovation Award include: “Naturity ® technology for single-piece natural cork stoppers” by Amorim Cork Italia, which makes it possible to combat trichloroanisole (the fungus responsible for the “cork” smell) thanks to an optimised combination of pressure, temperature, water vapour and time.

“Safi” by Della Toffola, a new green & smart tangential filter based on artificial intelligence and able to guarantee significant savings in terms of energy, water and chemicals; the “Digital Juice” pressing control system by Diemme Enologia in collaboration with WineGrid and G3 Enterprises, capable of detecting the composition of the must in real time and adjusting its processing accordingly; the “Hybrid electro-pneumatic filling valve” by Gai Macchine, which makes it possible to adapt just one type of equipment for fillings that today require the use of several machines.

In the spotlight of the Green Innovation Award, which instead rewards the most sustainable solutions through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), is Enoflex’s commitment to reducing the environmental impact, using a new material with 35% recycled plastic in its “Pet+” and “R-derma ®”, and “BioM COORe” by Tmci Padovan, a technology that recovers the CO2 produced by alcoholic fermentation for the production of algae biomass for the food supply chains.

And the reuse of “fermentation gas”, used in this case “in pressing” for the exhaustion of the grape marc, earns Siprem International the New Technology award, the category dedicated to the most promising proposals by sector.

These also include two solutions designed by Bucher Vaslin, the tangential filtration technique of the “Flavy FGC: New low carbon crossflow high-capacity filter”, capable of reducing (in addition to energy expenditure) the waste of wine and lees, and the “Bucher Xpert It Process Extraflow” pressing system, aimed at improving the yield of must and significantly reducing processing times.

A double mention for Parsec, which proposes “Quadr@ Oenological Software” and “SmarTrace System”, a software for the management of winemaking and a piece of equipment for monitoring the movement of liquids, both at the forefront in terms of traceability and process optimisation. Objective: the reduction of the processing stages, this time in the pressing phase, also for the “Lesslees Filtering Channel” by Diemme Enologia, which guarantees cleaner musts with less subsequent processing, while the “S.C.S. - The smart corking system” by the

Bertolaso Group receives an award for the extension of the shelf life of wine thanks to a new technology for the control of corking, implementing a monitoring system for the quality of closures.

For its 29th edition, Simei, the leading international event in wine technology (www.simei.it), has more than 450 exhibiting companies, delegations from 36 foreign countries and about 25,000 trade visitors expected from all over the world.