Treatment for the extraction of essences and active ingredients from plant products without altering their characteristics.
The Peels Improvement by means of Istantaneus Controlled Decompression (PIDIC) process represents an evolution of the Instant Controlled Decompression (DIC) process that allows to use this thermomechanical treatment forextraction of essential oils and juices with a high vitamin content and reduced bacterial load from citrus fruits and other types of fruit and vegetables.
Compared to the standard DIC process, the substantial differences are:
– the PIDIC treatment is carried out almost exclusively on whole fruits / vegetables, complete with their peel;
– the conditioning treatment has a shorter duration;
– the operating pressure ranges of the process are leveled down.
The PIDIC process allows to obtain high quality essential oils, with yields comparable to those of the most efficient extraction processes (steam current extraction, supercritical CO2 extraction) but with significantly lower energy consumption (even 10 times lower).
The juices obtainable with the PIDIC process have vitamin and organoleptic characteristics similar to a classic juice or centrifuged but are practically free of bacterial load and therefore lend themselves very well to conservation for medium to long periods.
For the application of the PIDIC process, a series of specific plant structures have been developed that are suitable to meet the needs of any type of organic product.