Biorerefinery Plant conducts trial run of single-cell protein
In collaboration with Domsjö Fabriker and Sekab, scientists at Processum have tested the large-scale production of single-cell protein, SCP which can be used in fish fodder.The result was a resounding success.
Fish meal production currently poses an environmental danger since enormous amounts of fish are fished out of the sea and ground into fishmeal. SCP is comprised of protein-rich microorganisms that can be produced through cultivation in bioreactors. These microorga- nisms can grow on waste products from the forestry industry, which offers an att- ractive method of transforming forest into food.
– The trial run at SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden’s Biorefinery Demo Plant was pre- ceded by extensive testing, first at laboratory scale and then in Processum’s pilot bioreactor, says Björn Alriksson, Research and Development Engineer at Processum and manager for the project.
In terms of the project, it has been ideal to be able to perform trials of this type from laboratory scale via the pilot facility up to demo scale, all in the same geographic vicinity.
– In parallel, the trial at SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden’s Biorefinery Demo Plant was part of evaluating how the plant could be utilized for other areas of use than the production of ethanol from raw cellulosic materials. In this trial, we paid particular attention to the suitability of the equipment for aerobic fermentation processes. In the trials, we used a filamentous fungus that was allowed to grow in a waste flow from Domsjö Fabriker. Thereafter, we harvested the fungus, dried it and ground it into a powder to be used as an ingredient in fish fodder. Foddering trials of a feed containing our fungus are currently ongoing at a project partner in Iceland