• The goals of the Kunza project of the Roda Energía consulting firm are to increase the nutritional value of dried fruit without using artificial colors or additives and incorporate small and medium-scale farmers to the production chain.

The project Kunza of the Roda Energía consulting firm was one of the four winners at the Impacta Energía Innovation Contest organized by the Chilean Government. The project was developed by former students of Universidad de Santiago de Chile: Francisco Vásquez, Chemical Civil Engineer with a Master’s in Engineering Sciences, and Braulio Rossel, graduate of the Electrical Civil Engineering program. 

The contest organized by the Government Lab and the Ministry of Energy awarded 75 million pesos to the winners. They will use these funds to finish the implementation of the first 100% solar-energy based dehydration plant for fruits and vegetables in the country.

Kunza Project funding

The idea arose in 2014, when the current project manager, Francisco Vásquez, together with a team of Roda Energía, participated in a contest of the Fundación para la Innovación Agraria. The contest had the goal of finding new proposals in the field of energy to solve problems of the agricultural sector.

With the support of this foundation and the Chilean Economic Development Agency, they conducted studies on detailed engineering to build the pilot plant. In 2016, the team participated in the Impacta EnergíaContest organized by the Chilean Government, being one of the four winners out of 494 participants.

Thanks to these funds and others, they will start building the plant in January 2017, in Litueche, which will include the installation of 100 solar panels and the construction of a building that will be used for pre-treating the fruits. 

The plant works with a hot-water closed system based on solar panels and it can process apples, mushrooms, strawberries and peppers. They are also testing its use with onions.

“In this process, you place the fruits in the drying chamber under appropriate room conditions, and control the temperature and humidity by means of a hot-water circuit based on solar panels. At the end of the day, when there is not solar radiation enough, the circuit works autonomously for two hours, producing about 1,800 snacks of 25 grams each, in one work day,” Braulio Rossel explains.

With regard to their business model, they say that they are faithful to the University’s hallmark; for this reason, they incorporated small and medium-scale farmers to the production chain.

Benefits and innovation

According to Francisco Vásquez, one of the advantages of the project is the natural production process. “In the process, no additives or flavors are added to the products. They are completely natural. The fruits are received, peeled, sliced and then dried in the chamber,” he says.

With regard to the nutrition facts, this process preserves most of the vitamins, as the products lose only up to 40%, in comparison to the traditional processes, in which the products lose 60%.

Translated by Marcela Contreras