The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has awarded funding to Bragato Research Institute (BRI) for a pilot study that explores transforming grape marc – the skins and seeds remaining after pressing – into hand sanitiser. The hand sanitiser from the study will be donated to Marlborough health workers and first responders.

“Using winery waste to produce ethanol for hand sanitiser is untested in the New Zealand context with our varietals. We haven’t had the capability to conduct a study like this in New Zealand until now, with our new research winery opening in February,” says MJ Loza, CEO of Bragato Research Institute.

The funding comes from the MBIE COVID-19 Innovation Acceleration Fund, which was created to accelerate research and projects that support COVID responses, and to provide rapid, short-term support to develop and quickly deploy products, processes and services.

In the short term, this eight-month study will deliver ethanol-based hand sanitiser, which will be bottled and donated. Longer term, the project will explore the business opportunity for the industry to turn waste into a new income stream, including more information on costs, the infrastructure needed, and technical findings specific to grape marc produced in New Zealand.

This study also considers other horticultural waste streams that could feed into the product. The project will be led by Dr Tanya Rutan, Winery Research Manager, as the science leader and Dr Matias Kinzurik, Research Programme Manager, as the contract manager.