Processing plant for KnipBio protein production. (Photo: KnipBio)
KnipBio moves towards commercial production of single cell protein
UNITED STATES
Saturday, January 20, 2018, 02:10 (GMT + 9)
The producer of premium aquaculture feed Ingredients KnipBio, Inc. announced they successfully completed the production process of KnipBio Meal™ single cell protein in a 20,000 liter fermentation vessel.
The company worked on this project with a major North American manufacturer, with the purpose of demonstrating the feasibility of carrying out its industrial-scale protein manufacturing process, to be able to start commercial operations next year.
“Our team has worked tirelessly since the completion of our last scale-up and it’s exciting to see these efforts come to fruition. Successfully moving from 1,500-liter to 20,000-liter production is a critical pre-commercialization step and offers solid proof that our fermentation process is highly scalable", said Larry Feinberg, CEO of KnipBio.
"By working with a recognized leader in industrial fermentation, we were able to leverage their experience to overcome process challenges and at the same time identify improvements leading to significant manufacturing cost savings. As an added bonus, we crossed the metric ton production threshold, enabling us to provide volume samples to selected industry partners who will be conducting feed trials on a range of aquaculture species”, he added.
The single cell protein developed by KnipBio showed that it has the same amino acid level of fishmeal and that it can also be a source of valuable immunonutrients, which makes this protein a promising alternative, according to researchers.
Feinberg also emphasized that they were able to reduce production costs by more that 15 times with this scale-up, making it competitive with fishmeal and soy protein.
“Our next manufacturing goal is achieving full commercial-scale production. Additional opportunities include the use of ethanol waste streams to serve as feedstocks for our fermentation process. These efforts kick off in 2018 and will enable us to meet our aggressive cost reduction targets”, Feinberg added.
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