50 Feed Technology
Innovators in the single cell and novel protein space and replacements for fish oils
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ver 2021, the Future of Fish Feed (F3) group has put together a series of webinars to provide information to industry on options in the drive for sustainable aquafeed production. In a third webinar in April, Dr Kevin Fitzsimmons, Chair and Judge of the F3 Challenge and Professor and Director of International Initiatives at the University of Arizona, USA, led a group of top innovators in the single cell and novel protein space. They discussed their technology, products and applications in aquafeeds. Fitzsimmons said, “We believe that single cell proteins (SCP) are taking the aquafeed industry by storm and it will be interesting to see how things develop in the coming years with a lot of innovative tools, converting pre-existing waste streams and byproducts into feedstock.” KnipBio’s CEO and Co-founder Larry Feinberg said that there is a fast, dynamic, powerful opportunity around its microbial conversion protein technology. The company has run 40 trials to date with its functional single protein KnipBio Meal (KBM), a straightforward fishmeal replacement that mirrors the protein and amino acid content of conventional fishmeal. A recently completed study on juvenile Asian seabass or barramundi showed all diets containing KBM had statistically higher growth performance compared to the control diets. In post larvae shrimp, a higher protein efficiency ratio was seen in KBM diets. There was resistance to early mortality syndrome (EMS) compared to control (commercial) diets. “Immuno-nutritional benefits of KBM were beyond that of just amino acid profile,” said Feinberg. KBM is currently waiting for FDA approval as GRAS -generally recognised as safe.
There are two global issues today: there is too little protein to meet global demand and the second issue is that there is too much carbon released into the atmosphere. “NovoNutrients is solving the former by producing an alternative protein source from carbon dioxide (CO2) originating from industrial processes, thus mitigating the latter issue,” said David Tze, CEO. NovoNutrients pairs CO2 with hydrogen and gases, giving an aqueous media for fermentation to produce its SCP. “We have received regulatory approval in Japan for the product to be used in animal nutrition and aquaculture. This product, Super July/August 2021 AQUA Culture Asia Pacific
Prime Protein with 73% protein on dry basis, is highly digestible at 95% and is highly palatable. It also contains vitamin B, carotenoids and fatty acids. In rainbow trout, feed substituted with 55% of this protein gave comparable growth as that of a control diet.” The pilot system will be scaled up to produce 1 tonne/ month in 2021. Tze described the model for NovoNutrients from project financing to offtake agreements. It has its first technology licensee and feed customer. The initial commercialisation will be in Japan in 2023, and eventually move to larger projects in the US and globally. By 2030, it should be upcycling CO2 at 4-5 million tonnes/year. Scaling is the next step for the SCP business and Calysta is achieving this with partner Adisseo in a joint venture to build a 20,000 tonnes plant in Chongqing, China with production in 2022 and sales throughout Asia for its sustainable protein FeedKind®. Allan LeBlanc, Vice President said that this guarantees entry into the largest feed market in the world. “When it comes to sustainability, SCP, especially gas-based proteins like FeedKind, stands out as they do not use agricultural inputs. There is a lower greenhouse gas (GHG) profile as our protein uses 90% less water than equivalent soy protein. Le Blanc added that with 71% of protein comprising 60% amino acids, FeedKind fits well into a formulation where there is little space for fibre and ash for an effective or quality pellet. A recent study with Kinda University in Japan on the Japanese yellowtail Seriola spp has been encouraging as the fish has been resistant to replacement of marine protein with plant proteins. Strong enteritis from high plant protein diets have been reported. Commercial feeds for the yellow tail contain 35-55% fishmeal. There is also a challenge around palatability. “We found that FeedKind at up to 17-20% of total feed gave good feed efficiency, growth and the same animal health as with marine feed ingredients. Therefore, this is a great template for us to work with species in Asia with less well-defined nutritional requirements.” Hong Kong based ICell Sustainable Nutrition commercialises its technology in the China market from
