How Geelong engineering firm Austeng is transforming wine waste

A Geelong engineering firm has partnered with Swisse Wellness to transform grape seeds destined for landfill into high-value nutrients.

A Geelong engineering firm has partnered with Swisse Wellness to transform grape seeds destined for landfill into high-value nutrients.

The partnership between Austeng, Swisse Wellness, start-up Viridi Innovations and Swinburne University processes the waste into reusable materials for complementary medicine.

Austeng managing director Ross George said the local company’s role was to take the technology and engineer it to work on a larger scale.

“We scaled it up by a factor of 100,” he said.

“The work we’ve done has proven the technology can work on a much greater scale.”

If implemented in Australia, the process could see grape waste from wine production reduced by up to 40 per cent each year.

Mr George said the investment tapped into a billion-dollar nutraceutical industry and created local employment.

“This is a stepping stone to other, more different products that can help reduce waste in other areas,” he said.

Viridi’s managing director Nick Terziovski said Swisse had expressed interest in “highly desirable antioxidants” in their products.

“That’s a lot of waste not going to landfill and a positive step forward to make the local

wine industry more globally competitive,” he said.

“We have fully developed a small-scale pilot plant and are now market-ready and seeking interest from investors to help scale-up.”

If implemented in Australia, the process could see grape waste from wine production reduced by up to 40 per cent each year.

“Using local wine production waste, we can now source this product locally and create new, climate- friendly jobs and potentially export to the world,” Mr Terziovski said.

Originally published as How Geelong engineering firm Austeng is transforming wine waste