Memphis home for FeedKind facility
AN alternative feed ingredient produced from methane gas is to go into commercial production in the US, at Cargill’s site in Tennessee.
FeedKind, which has been trialled in Redcar, Teesside, by US company Calysta, was launched at a ceremony at the English R&D and market introduction facility in September.
Now Cargill and Calysta plan to invest in the creation of the world’s largest gas fermentation facility in Memphis, Tennessee.
The facility is expected to come online in late 2018, producing up to 20,000 tonnes per year of FeedKind protein initially and expanding up to 200,000 tonnes per year when operating at full capacity.
Upon completion of the plant, the new venture expects to hire 75 permanent employees and expand to 160 people when the plant is at full ramp-up.
FeedKind protein is a new feed ingredient initially targeted as an alternative to fishmeal for the aquaculture industry. It is produced using the world’s only commercially validated gas fermentation process. Cargill and Calysta jointly will be marketing FeedKind protein globally.
Alan Shaw, president and CEO of Calysta, said: ‘With a proven and proprietary fer- mentation platform, Calysta is introducing a scalable and disruptive protein source critical to meeting the needs of a growing global population.
‘Partnering with Cargill, a leader in fermentation and protein production, and others to invest in the establishment of the venture as the first US manufacturing plant to commercially produce FeedKind protein, significantly accelerates FeedKind protein’s launch in the aquaculture industry at commercial scale.
‘This venture is an important first step to deploying this technology globally.’