NEWS 12 Alternative Proteins Magazine April 2024 MicroHarvest, one of the leading industrial biotechnology companies dedicated to advancing sustainable protein production, launched its cutting-edge pilot plant in Lisbon, Portugal – enabling the company to produce single-cell protein samples. The official launch of the pilot, marked by an event held on November 16th in Lisbon, attended by investors FoodLabs and Faber to name but a few, marks a significant milestone in MicroHarvest’s mission to reshape the landscape of sustainable food production. With the ability to operate beyond labscale inhouse, the pilot plant will accelerate MicroHarvest’s journey toward commercialization and market availability. The plant will produce protein samples for customers, allowing the company to further hone its technology and test production runs before bringing them to commercial scale. The pilot plant is located at their Factory Lisbon site. In a remarkable span of six months, MicroHarvest transformed a portion of its office space into a fully equipped laboratory and pilot plant. Luísa Cruz, CTO of MicroHarvest, notes, “This pilot plant serves as tangible evidence of the scalability of our process. With a lower investment when compared to alternative technologies, and within a mere 200 square meters, we can achieve a daily production of 25 kg.” Simultaneously, after successfully transferring the technology and scaling up production to reach daily outputs in tons, the team engaged a commercial production partner. Read more>> MicroHarvest launches pilot plant to produce single-cell protein samples Business Finland has conditionally approved a recycling and reuse investment grant of more than €12 million for biotech startup Enifer to build its first commercial-scale PEKILO® mycoprotein ingredient factory. The funding comes from the European Union NextGenerationEU recovery instrument. It will support building first-of-its-kind industrial facilities promoting the reuse and recycling of industrial by-products and waste streams, hence aligning with the EU’s circular economy action plan and the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland. The commercial-scale factory will produce Enifer's unique PEKILO® mycoprotein ingredients, which are made using fungal fermentation. The PEKILO® fermentation process has a long legacy; it was originally developed by Finnish forest industry engineers in the 1970s. As the world’s first commercial mycoprotein production process from 1975 to 1991, it converted forest industry by-products into sustainable feed protein for the domestic market. The new facility will have a production capacity of 3 million kilograms a year of sustainable, locally sourced protein -roughly equivalent to the protein content of meat from 30,000 cows- but with at least 20 times lower carbon emissions and considerably lower water and land use. The factory is currently projected to cost €30 million to build and is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, with production ramp-up occurring in 2026. Read more>> Enifer builds first-of-its-kind mycoprotein ingredient factory
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